The Great Arcanist Who Traveled Through the World of American Variety Shows.

Chapter 637: Sweeping the Balkan Peninsula

The city gates were closed and the morale of the Byzantine army outside the city completely collapsed. The cavalry still had a chance to escape, but the infantry had no chance at all.

Seeing this, a large number of Byzantine infantry began to drop their weapons and surrender.

The entire battlefield was filled with surrendering Byzantine soldiers, and the Western Roman Empire completely won the war.

Richard did not stop the attack, he planned to take the opportunity to capture the city as well.

And Drenos has the same plan.

"We don't have time to capture you. Put down your weapons, get off the road and don't block it!" The soldiers, who were in a panic, dodged to both sides and made way.

As Drenos' voice rang out, three hundred heavily armored cavalry quickly crossed the battlefield, and behind them were the siege troops that had been prepared long ago.

Siege vehicles and siege towers were pushed onto the battlefield.

At this time, the morale of the defenders in the city was low because of the disastrous defeat on the battlefield. Although there were 5,000 defenders, it was still a question how much strength the 5,000 defenders could exert in this situation.

The morale of the soldiers of the Western Roman Empire on the battlefield was high, and the ramp was soon pushed to the edge of the city wall. One by one, archers climbed up the ramp and shot at the city wall from a high position.

A large number of infantry also began to attack the city pushing battering rams and ladders.

There was no enemy harassment outside the city, and the army's attack was unusually smooth. Dranos led a dozen knights to rush up the ladder, and then jumped onto the city wall. Holding a knife in one hand and a hammer in the other, he shot left and right, slashing wildly.

A dozen soldiers formed a battle array around him, but he killed them all. The knights behind him rushed up one after another. In just a moment, a gap was opened on the city wall.

A dozen knights charged frantically, and the defenders, whose morale was already low, scattered in a flash after resisting for a while.

A section of the city wall was captured.

Immediately afterwards, a large number of soldiers swarmed in from here.

Faced with this situation, the general defending the city said with a sad face: "Surrender, we have no chance!"

As he said that, he threw the weapon in his hand to the ground.

Soon, section after section of the city wall fell, and the army of the Western Roman Empire swarmed in, with more and more soldiers rushing into the city.

The soldiers responsible for guarding the city gate were killed directly. Drenos easily conquered the city gate and then directly ordered the soldiers to open the city gate.

The city gate slowly opened, and with shouts of killing, the Western Roman army entered the city.

Seeing the city gates lost, the Byzantine soldiers dropped their weapons and surrendered. Drenos immediately ordered his men to control important places in the city and at the same time began to maintain order in the city according to Richard's orders.

In this era, it was normal for the victors of a war to plunder a city after conquering it.

On the contrary, the soldiers of the Xiluo Empire not only did not plunder, but maintained order. This was a rare practice. The people in the city, who had been living in despair all day long, gradually felt relieved after seeing this scene.

After entering the city, Dranos immediately ordered the army to enforce military law, arresting all those who dared to take to the streets, and beheading those who resisted. Those who took the opportunity to rob, kill, and burn were all killed.

At the same time, he ordered cavalry squads to patrol the streets and order soldiers to take action immediately if they saw anyone violating the rules.

Under this order, the entire city became visibly calmed down.

After completing this, the soldiers began to search house by house, searching out all the Byzantine soldiers and arresting the generals.

While searching, these soldiers would also read out the policies of the Western Roman Empire.

When the people saw the Roman Empire army doing this, they were all surprised and curious. In the past period of time, in order to fight against the Western Roman Empire, the local nobles and officials have been preaching that the Western Roman Empire is a group of demons.

They are a group of demons who kill without blinking an eye. Or maybe they enjoy killing people for fun and like to eat people, especially children and girls. They also commit rape and robbery, and they are not afraid of any evil.

Once this place was conquered, everyone in the city would be slaughtered. The nobles and officials slandered and insulted the Roman Empire in order to make the people in the city fight against the Western Roman Empire with them.

But it is obvious that the nobles and officials' approach did not succeed. In particular, the performance of the Roman army when it entered the city was completely different from the descriptions of the nobles and officials.

No one listened to the words of these nobles and officials, who had little credibility to begin with.

After occupying the city, Richard took control of the warehouses and the mansions of the nobles. Richard was not polite to these officials and nobles.

Direct orders were given to confiscate the properties of these nobles and officials.

These nobles and officials occupied a large amount of wealth in the city. How could we give rewards to the soldiers without confiscating their property?
If we don't kill these people, where will the land be distributed to the civilians?
These nobles controlled almost 80% of the land, and the rest of the ordinary people were almost all their serfs.

After occupying this place, Richard directly announced the Equal Distribution of Land and the Order of Freeing Slaves. After learning that the Western Roman Empire was going to distribute land to them, the people immediately cheered. One by one, they shouted loudly: "Long live the Emperor! Long live the Roman Empire!"

It only took two days for Richard to successfully win back the hearts of the people in the entire city. At the same time, the general in charge of defending the city was also captured.

Richard was quite impressed with this Byzantine general. His commanding ability was quite good.

After meeting Richard, the general of the Byzantine Empire said directly, "Your Majesty, the Emperor of the Roman Empire, I, Bedlis, am willing to surrender to you."

Looking at the general, Richard nodded slightly and said, "I accept your surrender."

"Your Majesty, your command of this war is a complete art!" Bedlis said excitedly.

It can be seen that after this battle, he has been completely convinced by Richard, otherwise he would not have surrendered so easily.

Next, the surrendered Bedlis told Richard everything he knew about the internal situation in Byzantium, and Richard compared the information with the intelligence he had collected.

It was soon confirmed that all of Bedlis's information was true.

With Bedlis's surrender, the situation of the Byzantine Empire was almost clear.

In this battle, Richard defeated the Byzantine coalition forces, and the Ostrogothic Kingdom was basically destroyed. This country, which was originally conquered by the Huns and became a vassal of the Huns, took the opportunity to get rid of the control of the Huns during the Huns' civil war.

As a result, not long after regaining their independence, they were conquered by the Roman Empire again.

Richard would not keep them as vassals, so he arrested all the nobles and officials of the Eastern Roman Empire and exiled them to Spain, forcing them to mine in Spain.

Mining in this era is a high-risk industry. In fact, even now, mining is very dangerous, and a mining accident may cause dozens or even hundreds of casualties.

In ancient times when there were no advanced machines, the mortality rate would be even higher.

Richard gave them five years, and if they could survive in the mines for five years, they would be granted citizenship, and would be allocated land and tools, becoming Roman citizens.

However, according to the death rate in the mine, the chances of these people surviving are less than one-third.

In addition to these nobles and officials, Richard began to screen the surrendered soldiers, and those who were strong and healthy were directly incorporated into the Death Battalion. Those who were incorporated into the Death Battalion could become formal soldiers as long as they beheaded three levels of people.

The remaining soldiers were sent to North Africa to start reclaiming wasteland or building roads.

These people also need to work here for five years. They are responsible for a large number of projects such as reclaiming land, building roads, and constructing cities.

These people have done the equivalent of five years of hard labor. Although it is hard work, compared to the mines, the survival rate here is over 80 percent.

As long as they could survive five years, these people would become Roman citizens and obtain land.

Richard dealt with the captives simply. The Roman Empire was in ruins and he would not kill these captives. You know, these captives were all adult laborers and were perfect for work.

In addition to these surrendered soldiers, Richard began to divide the land here and implement Roman decrees.

On the other hand, upon learning that the coalition army was defeated and the Ostrogothic Kingdom was destroyed, the coalition army, which was fighting against the Roman Empire Navy in southern Macedonia, suddenly panicked.

You know, the army that resisted Richard was responsible for guarding their rear and flanks. Now that the Ostrogothic Kingdom was destroyed, their flanks were directly exposed. Once Richard's army was dispatched, their rear would be blocked.

Richard was naturally very clear about this, and on the second day after the war ended, he ordered the cavalry to head towards Greece.

He was preparing to attack the flank of this army, and this move instantly made the Byzantine army panic.

The Roman general in charge of the navy also took the opportunity to launch a large-scale attack, directly defeating the shaken Byzantine army.

Fortunately, these Byzantine generals were not stupid and used ships to escape from the sea. However, even so, the Byzantine army suffered heavy losses this time.

Out of the 50,000 troops, only 10,000 were able to escape.

Without this army to block the attack, the navy in the south, in cooperation with the cavalry, directly conquered the Macedonian Kingdom.

Just one month after the war broke out, the two countries that joined the Byzantine Alliance were destroyed by Richard.

After destroying the Kingdom of Macedonia, Richard dealt with it in the same way as he did with the Ostrogothic Kingdom.

A large number of nobles and officials of the kingdom were directly exiled, the former soldiers were sent to do hard labor, and ordinary people were given land.

At the same time, in order to strengthen control over this place, Richard began to immigrate here from Italy, and at the same time immigrated the indigenous people here to Italy, Gaul, Spain and North Africa.

(End of this chapter)