When the Saint comes, she does not collect food

Chapter 743: Fight Again, I Will Be Convinced
Through the stained glass windows, the evening light shines on the lapis lazuli floor tiles.

Between the velvet curtains, twenty-four shining bronze candlesticks were swaying with bright light.

Passing through the purple curtains beside the pillars, at the end of the scarlet carpet, there was a pit filled with sand that was as big as three beds.

In the yellow sand, several stones and branches were placed to represent mountains and forests, and flags as big as a little finger were planted to represent military camps.

This is a simple sand table, with neither precise mountains nor accurate height differences, only a flat surface.

The kestrel from the Duke of Wingnest was pacing silently along the edge of the sandbox, occasionally lowering its head and stirring the sand with its butter-colored beak.

"You are more courageous than lambs!"

The rough and angry voice echoed under the dome of the castle hall. The beard of Duke Ordassare of Wing Nest, who was dressed in a sable robe, trembled.

"My dear cousin has been captured alive, and you are like ravens curled up in their nests in winter, unwilling to let even a feather get wet by the frost?"

The slender knuckles, which did not match the beard, tapped on the table in front of the sand table, and the rainbow bead necklace on his neck jumped along with it.

"The Redwood family's thousand cavalrymen fought for a whole day, but in the end they were cut off from retreat by four thousand peasant soldiers. And you gentlemen here are having a meal and tasting wine?"

The many nobles on both sides of the sand table looked sad, some lowered their heads to study the patterns on the floor, while others raised their heads to admire the religious paintings on the dome.

As for the Duke of Wing Nest's roar, no one dared to step forward to respond.

"Tarkan, tell me, seeing that Duke Redwood was captured, why didn't you go to rescue him?"

The knight commander who was named walked out bravely and said, "Sir, it's not that we don't want to rescue, it's that Duke Redwood didn't try hard enough. He was held back by hundreds of infantrymen. If we could win, there would be no more trouble."

The Duke of Wing Nest glared at the Knight Commander and said, "You better understand that the Duke of Redwood lost less than a hundred men when he failed to attack the fort, and only lost half of them when he was surrounded and annihilated.

I asked you why you didn't come to the rescue, not why the Duke of Redwood couldn't even break through the fortress with hundreds of people!"

But Knight Commander Tarkan was still unconvinced. Although he bowed his head and admitted his mistake, he still muttered: "It's impossible to delay time for such a short while. I just called the knights and set out on the road not long ago, how come they were defeated..."

"Oh, you really took too much trouble. How can a group of elite knights march faster than the miscellaneous knights of Qianhe Valley?" Duke Yichao sneered sarcastically, "How come the people of Qianhe Valley arrived in time?"

Of course, the Knight Commander could not answer this question. He just kept blaming himself with a look of bad luck: "It rained too hard. I didn't expect it. The Redwood Duke was defeated too quickly. It's also my fault..."

The only sound in the entire hall was the Knight Commander's mosquito-like self-blame. Later, even the Knight Commander's mosquito-like sound stopped, and there was only silence.

Half a day later, Archbishop Jin Weisi of Silver Bay City slowly spoke: "The people of Qianhe Valley used magic, and they will go to hell after they die."

The Duke of Wingchao closed his eyes slightly, suppressing his anger and remaining silent.

Andre used the tactic of adding fuel to the fire, quickly mobilized troops, and captured the Duke of Redwood alive with an absolute advantage in troop strength.

Not only that, they also killed and captured thousands of knights and soldiers.

They originally only had an army of more than 30,000, and this was all the result of the full support of the local church. The new Pope even directly refunded this year's taxes on the Gravel Plain.

Among these more than 30,000 troops, almost half are mercenaries, and he urgently needs enough core combat power.

It was his cousin Duke Redwood and his main knights who came to support him, and they were the backbone of the fighting force he was expecting.

As a result, when this fresh force had just reached halfway, nearly a thousand knights and two thousand soldiers were wiped out by the people of Thousand River Valley.

Whenever he thought of this, the Duke of Wingchao would feel a pang of pain in his heart.

Standing in front of the Duke, Knight Commander Tarkan noticed that the Duke's expression was becoming more and more dangerous, and immediately turned the topic to a black-robed earl: "My Lord Duke, I remember now, I ordered the rescue of the Duke of Redwood, and Count Lucerne was the closest to him. My Lord Earl, where have you been?"

Luceni immediately defended himself: "The people of Qianhe Valley have transferred their troops, so the rear must be empty, so I decided to attack them from behind, so as to achieve the goal of luring the people of Qianhe Valley away."

Before the Duke of Wing Nest could speak, the knight who had escaped from the Duke of Redwood started to curse: "Did you succeed in outflanking?"

Count Lucerne said awkwardly, "It's because the friendly forces didn't provide timely support. Your Highness, since you set out, you should have been nearby, right?" The Knight Commander pointed at the sand table with a branch and said, "I'm at this location."

The Earl immediately pointed at his nose and cursed: "Well, you are only thirty miles away, why don't you cooperate and support me?"

The Knight Commander retorted, "Who is more important, the Duke of Redwood or you? Besides, all the troops of the Thousand River Valley have been transferred away. How many people do you plan to send to those small pentagonal outposts? Blame me for not providing support in time!"

"I sent out my troops only after I saw Hosio sending out his troops. But when I arrived, he hadn't yet, so we couldn't break through..."

"Bullshit, Luceni, I wasn't attacking that outpost at all."

"Why don't I see you in the team supporting Duke Sequoia..."

"Come out and fight me one on one if you can..."

"boom!"

As if he couldn't stand the quarrel, an old knight slammed the table and stood up. The loud noise attracted everyone's attention.

"stop fighting."

The people who were originally arguing stopped and focused their eyes on the white-haired old knight, looking forward to his brilliant speech.

"In the final analysis, it was Meliati who had no moral principles and suddenly declared war, and we were not prepared.

My Lord Duke, please send someone to Thousand River Valley and ask them to release Duke Redwood. Then we can set up our battle formation and fight again.

If I still lose, I will be convinced..."

The crowd finally quieted down completely, but unlike before, this time they were completely speechless.

The court baron could not help but ask, “Mr. Knight, let me be frank, will it be different if I play it again?

That's because they are faster than us and can fight harder.

Although we seem to have more troops, we are unable to break through the outposts of the Qianhe Valley people, nor can we stop them from gathering their troops.

If you disperse, you will be divided and attacked; if you concentrate, you will be outflanked from both sides.

This is the simple way they attack us. Even without the holy gun and clockwork cannon, we still lose in a more graceful way.

If we don't crack this, we won't be able to fight against the people of Qianhe Valley!"

Everyone in the hall fell silent. If there was a solution, would they need to pass the blame around?
Looking at these nobles dressed in purple and fur, the Duke of Wingchao suddenly envied Meliati.

Although the people of Qianhe Valley do not have the glory of nobility, the power of the two great lords is really great.

And he did not even have the power to decide the guilt of a nobleman on his own, but needed all the nobles to discuss it together.

"Think about it carefully when you go back. Within three days, everyone must submit a plan to defeat Qianhe Valley."

In silence, many vassals and nobles bowed and saluted, as if the quarrel had never happened.

The last noble to leave closed the door, leaving the Duke alone sitting in front of the sand table.

Standing up from his seat, the Duke walked to the sand table.

At this time, the sand table had been turned into a mess by Red Falcon, and only the general outline could be seen.

Standing in front of the sand table, Duke Yichao compared the map in his hand. After a while, he suddenly seemed to have made up his mind and smashed the map heavily at the location of Yantanji.

(End of this chapter)