Industrial Revolution of the Mage Lords

Chapter 491: Battle of Lanjing City

At the border between Barclay and Saint Valen is a vast area of green fields and low hills. Due to the lack of rivers to irrigate farmland, there are not many villages and towns in this area, and even bandits rarely set foot there.

After nearly four days of field marching, the Northern Army finally crossed this desolate border area and could see in the distance villages, towns, and farmlands, as well as a huge city nestled in the valley at the foot of the mountain - Bluethorn City, the capital of Carlo Kofman, the Grand Duke of Barclay.

This is a city within the Principality of Barclay, second only to the royal capital, Maple Leaf City. Although its population and prosperity cannot compare with the royal capital, the silver mines produced within its territory are well-known. It is rumored to be the origin of the current Barclay royal family, the Kofman family. It is a very rich resource-rich city.

Pierce ordered his troops to halt in a dense forest on a hill five or six miles from Bluethorn City. He then led his scouts to the top of the hill to observe carefully through a telescope. "Notify the General Staff that we can now send someone to deliver the diplomatic documents to Duke Carlo."

According to the previous battle plan, quietly crossing the border and directly attacking the city of Lanjing, and rashly launching a surprise war against the neighboring lord, would easily plunge Saint Valen and the North into a vortex of diplomatic public opinion. After all, the nature of civil war in the principality is different from the formal outbreak of war with neighboring countries... Even in the case of Daeus and Saint Valen's chaotic border conflict, the two countries did not formally declare war on the outside world, not wanting to escalate the conflict into an irreversible full-scale war.

Harvey was also making the same calculation at the moment - as a spellcaster, he was already very sensitive about ruling a secular kingdom. If he didn't want to force all the southern countries to side with the church, he had to at least ensure that he had a "legitimate reason".

Submitting a diplomatic document accusing the other party of invading the border without reason and looting the people of the country is actually just a temporary formality... Everyone knows that Duke Carlo will not give in directly and really return the looted treasures and food as required in the document, and then pay a large amount of money to make up for the war losses suffered by the people on the border.

The other party will most likely ignore this, and even if they are a little more vigilant, they will not immediately arrange to strengthen city defense and territory alert.

It can be seen from the situation of the march across the border in the past few days that this border grand duke who boasts of having heavy troops and fortified cities under his command did not seem to have considered the possibility that Saint Valen would settle accounts with him later. After retreating, he did not even leave behind a small group of cavalry scouts, and had no idea that a powerful combat force had already approached under his nose.

……

Grand Duke Carlo Kofman sat on a high throne, squinting at the messenger standing at the foot of the stairs. He raised an eyebrow and smiled, "The Northern Lord of Saint Valen is really too idle! His own country's situation hasn't even stabilized yet... and he's already rushing to settle accounts with the Grand Duke of my neighboring country?"

He stood up, patted the sword hanging at his waist provocatively, and sneered, "Go back and tell the lords of the Northern Territory that I was summoned by the Pope to Saint Valen to rescue the believers who were expelled and persecuted by you. All my actions are in accordance with the traditional legal principle of mutual assistance between noble lords. There is nothing wrong with it."

The young envoy's face was sullen, as if he was suppressing his anger. "Then His Excellency the Grand Duke massacred the people along the border of Saint Valen and allowed his soldiers to plunder and steal large quantities of food and property...was he also following the traditional laws of the nobility?"

Grand Duke Carlo shrugged nonchalantly, "To support the two thousand elite cavalry and three thousand mercenary infantry, I have to pay them wages and rewards, right? Besides... the knights under my command are all retainers of vassal nobles, not all of them are directly loyal to me. If they want to exploit loopholes and seek personal gain, I can't stop them. The Northern Lord should understand this as well as I do."

As soon as he said this, the vassal knights standing in the lord's hall all laughed softly. They thought it was really funny that this lord of a neighboring country who had just captured the capital but had not yet sat on the throne was really funny. It was very common for neighboring countries to take advantage of civil unrest in their own country and invade to extort money. But he had sent envoys to deliver diplomatic documents in a serious manner, thinking that he could spit out and return the meat that had been robbed.

The guy who was born as a spellcaster, his brain was indeed eroded by magic and was different from that of ordinary people.

The messenger said in a deep voice, "So, Your Excellency the Duke wants to go to war with us again?"

Faced with the provocation of a young envoy who looked like he hadn't even grown all his hair, Duke Carlo naturally didn't take it seriously. He chuckled and said, "Haha, I'm waiting for the Northern Lord to lead his army to Lanjing City..." Seeing this, the envoy said no more. After bowing, he slightly raised the corner of his mouth, turned around with a strange expression and left the city.

After a while, a middle-aged man dressed as a chief priest approached Duke Carlo and whispered, "Your Excellency, do not underestimate this Northern Territory Lord. Rumor has it that he has many powerful spellcasters under his command, and possesses magical weapons that are comparable to those of the Federation."

Duke Carlo curled his lips, took a sip from his wine glass, and said, "How many battle mages can a pioneer lord have? If it weren't for the Union's backing, do you think Jinhui City would have fallen so easily? The feud between the Church and the Union...after all, it only broke out in Saint Valen. If the other side dared to send spellcasters to attack the noble lords of the neighboring countries, hmph...isn't he afraid that the Union can't withstand the joint attack of the southern countries?"

He then turned around and smiled, "Besides, there are quite a few battle priests and bloodline knights in the city right now. If a mage lord really came knocking on your door, would you just sit back and watch?"

The chief priest frowned and whispered strangely, "In the past, we certainly couldn't sit idly by and watch the spellcasters wreak havoc on the nations. But we recently received an order from the Holy City demanding that we..."

Before he could finish his words, a fully armored city guard knight suddenly hurried into the hall, his face filled with panic as he said, "Your Excellency, a large army has suddenly been spotted approaching from outside the city. The banners and emblems they are displaying are extremely strange, and it's impossible to tell where they're coming from..."

Before the city guard knight finished reporting the situation, a personal guard stumbled in from outside the door and said in a trembling voice, "Your Excellency, there's a flying magical creature in the sky...in the sky, taking off from outside the city and flying straight into the city!"

"What? A magical creation? Being able to fly in the sky... is it a high-level spellcaster?" Duke Carlo's heart skipped a beat. He had just driven away the envoy of the Northern Lord. Could it be that he really had the ability to send a high-level spellcaster to attack him the next second?
What about the thousands of ordinary soldiers outside the city?

The chief priest said solemnly, "Your Excellency the Duke, please seek refuge in the castle basement immediately. If this is truly a high-level spellcaster... we will be responsible for your safety."

Duke Carlo nodded and stood up surrounded by his personal guards. He hurriedly ordered as he headed down to the castle basement, "Assemble my Bluethorn Knights and the City Guard... Keep a close eye on the movements of the army outside the city. Release birds to call for aid from the vassal nobles. Humph... Thinking of taking my city with just over 3,000 men is unrealistic."

Suddenly, there seemed to be a rumbling thunder in the sky, accompanied by a slight tremor of the stone bricks on the ground under his feet. Duke Carlo paused, raised his hand to hold the wall and listened for a moment.

"What's that noise?"

Another muffled thunder came from a very far distance, followed by continuous thunder explosions...making people feel like they were in a small boat in the vortex of a thunderstorm.

Seeing this, Duke Carlo didn't dare to stay where he was, fearing that this was the magic work of a high-level spellcaster who came to attack. He hurried to the door of the secret room under the castle and was about to turn around and ask the chief priest to send people to search the Duke's Mansion to prevent spellcasters from sneaking in and waiting for an opportunity to assassinate him.

The city defense knight who had just been ordered to leave threw himself at his feet, his face covered in blood and his armor shattered. He said in horror, "Your Excellency the Duke... they... they broke through the city gate!"

(End of this chapter)