Warhammer

Chapter 31: The Iron Throne

Realizing that he had been heading in the wrong direction from the beginning and had ignored a ready-made shortcut, Al quickly took remedial measures.

The new soldiers soon discovered that many redundant, complicated and very troublesome regulations were abolished. Al's attempt to establish a meticulous influence on the army through comprehensive regulations to improve their combat effectiveness failed, but he began to implement another simpler, more direct and more...

A frenetic approach.

Wooden pillars covered with iron sheets (to save costs) were erected, and skulls of various monsters and enemies were hung on them for decoration. The throne made of copper and iron and covered with spikes became the most eye-catching building in the barracks. The huge throne, which was not for mortals but dedicated to the giant god, became a sacred object that every soldier must worship every day. The iron throne covered with spikes and regularly poured with fresh blood at dawn and dusk every day symbolized the incarnation of the Mother of Fury here.

When mortals' eyes focus on it, they seem to be able to see countless illusions of fighting and battles in the cold black iron, inspiring, motivating, and amplifying the fighting desire and will to win in people's hearts.

A large number of members of the Blood Oath Brotherhood began to join the new army. Their role was not to command, at least for now. Ai'er needed these people with firm and devout beliefs to do more important work.

"political commissar".

Of course, strictly speaking, it is still the duty of a combat priest.

These officers of the old Estalia army put down...well, they still held the sword in one hand and the iron scripture in the other. They were very heavy, the kind that could smash people's heads and cause bleeding.

My daily job is to train and preach with the team, and help soldiers solve their problems when they are in trouble. I also curse them and say that they can't even handle such a small matter, and they are really ungrateful to the Blood Mother's protection. If I can't solve the problem, I will look for help from a higher level.

Because of his rough but caring way of dealing with things, the soldiers affectionately call him "Big Brother".

At the call of the political commissars and Al's deliberate encouragement, the soldiers began to cultivate competitiveness, even if it meant private fights and casualties.

He formulated a series of rules to crown the victors with glory and obtain generous rewards, and gave the most fair judgment to duels and competitions witnessed by political commissars and generous rewards to the victors.

Large-scale unarmed gladiatorial confrontations were held frequently, and within just two weeks, the proportion of disabled people exceeded the total number of casualties caused by training and marching since the training of the new army.

Al naturally couldn't do what the Yankees did and lose in the competition. The loser deserved to be turned into dry bones, or if he was lucky enough, he would be blessed by the attention of a dark god and return to kill his eldest brother and slaughter his hometown tribe cruelly.

The injured will be treated by the shamans. If the condition is really serious, then they can get a simple job and earn enough to support their families while still being able to move freely. If the condition is really serious, the Political Committee will consult them and then choose whether to help these losers to end their lives. Then, the shamans will use the "Emerald Coffin" to let them join a special force formed by Ai'er as "the Silent Ones" and be responsible for public security and intelligence work in various gatherings.

In order to enable this new army to complete its transformation as quickly as possible, Al spent a huge amount of money.

He got a method from the Blood Mother, and expended a great deal of manpower and material resources to create this "Iron Throne". First, he smeared it with blood for eight consecutive days, endowed it with divine power with the blood of the Eternal Chosen, and then took out the statue of the Blood Mother from the shrine of the Four Mothers placed in the Rock of Natal and placed it on top.

The shamans were summoned to hold a ceremony that lasted three days and three nights. All the ceratops and beastman shamans were exhausted, and finally the entire forest where the huge military camp was located was transformed into a sub-domain full of swords and the cold light of swords, blood, fire and smoke. It was a projection of a part of the Blood Mother's domain. This was because the concentration of tribal magic wind in the Pina Forest had increased, which was enough to support such a large-scale continuous spell.

Among them, except for those who truly believe in and practice the Blood Mother's Creed, such as the "Political Commissar Priests" of the Blood Oath Brotherhood, other mortals who are not firm enough will be constantly influenced by it.

Cowards will embrace bravery, veterans will shout for battle, and the roar from the realm of chaos, even after passing through countless worlds and countless obstacles, can still inspire people's deepest bravery and anger when it echoes in the mortal world.

In this regard, the Blood Mother is more merciful than Khorne. Khorne despises and destroys the cowardly and weak. The greatest mercy He shows to such people is that He does not kill the unarmed. Other than that, don't even think about blessing or valuing them. Even if you were a warrior valued by Him the moment before, you may lose the Blood God's attention the next moment because of a failure in challenging a powerful enemy. But if you are a mortal who has the courage to charge into battle and fight a powerful enemy to the death, you may also be valued by the Skull Seat.

But the Blood Mother is different. She also dislikes weakness, but her dislike is a kind of anger of "hating iron for not being able to make steel". Her anger is like a harsh scolding accompanied by a whip, forcing cowards to hold their spears firmly and stand firm.

At the same time, she will not hesitate to be magnanimous to those temporary failures and cowardice, and will not let your blood explode and your body be shattered the next moment. As long as you are not a truly hopeless coward, the Blood Mother will inspire the courage in your heart and encourage you to challenge difficulties and strong enemies.

Once you understand the teachings of the Blood Mother, you will understand the origin of the nickname "Mother of Fury" and "our grumpy mother" in the mouths of the Centaurs.

Perhaps it was because Al had not yet shown any brave and manly moments, so the Blood Mother's words to her own son sounded like thunder, as if she wanted to come down to earth and possess him, and personally fight for him until a river of blood flowed.

Of course at the same time, Al still did not give up his demand for discipline and obedience. What he wanted was a gang that would rush forward when they were told to attack, and retreat in an orderly manner when they were told to retreat. They wanted troops that could obey orders like the back of their hands, not a group of reckless men who fought among themselves every day and thought about how to surrender the throne.

Moreover, he might even be thinking about challenging upwards to move up in position. What he wants is a legion, not a real Chaos warband. If that were the case, he wouldn't have needed to go through so much trouble in building the tribe we have today. Those who are capable will be promoted and those who are not can be made slaves, and that would be it. He would then lead tens of thousands of Chaos Beastmen, howling as they charge towards the civilized world, and after the destruction by the Greenskins, bring a little Chaos shock to the Estalians.

.......

Then he was interfered by the dwarves of the Elf Bator Empire, and he had to keep his tail between his legs. If he was lucky, he could run fast and hide in Aesel Loren.

But in that case, I guess the Four Mothers will find a way to beat up El first, allowing you to defeat the Last Hour. What's the difference between you winning this way and the opponent winning?

Chapter 32: The Fall of the City and the Dawn of Peace?

While Aiur was messing with his army, the Estalia were also being messed with by the greenskins.

Just like Ai'er did with the new army, the "Fortress of Saint Mona", which was also highly expected by the Estalia people, did not disappoint the energy and blood invested by the northerners.

Over the course of four months, the city wall changed hands repeatedly, the trenches were filled, burned, filled, and burned countless times, and several times the piles of corpses under the city wall were high enough for the greenskins to step on the piles and jump onto the wall.

Before the final moment arrived, the greenskins had already controlled the outer ring of the fortress, including the city gates, city walls, and artillery towers, and their troops once reached the city.

This time was not like the last time when no great wizard sacrificed himself - because the strong ones who had the ability to draw the wind of magic and die with the enemy had either died in the fierce battle or had been seriously injured and retreated to the rear. Under the amplification of the Waaaaaagh stance formed by more than 200,000 greenskins, the power of the greenskin shamans was strengthened and amplified several times, and human wizards could only simply compete with them.

The defenders in the inner circle of the fortress sent several death squads to advance to the rear of the greenskins, and finally succeeded in rushing to the hidden vault under the artillery position and ignited the gunpowder stored there. The chain explosion almost destroyed the outer city. The collapsed buildings crushed hundreds of greenskins to death and temporarily separated the greenskin troops inside and outside the city, buying the defenders another two days.

When the dawn of the third day descended upon the earth and drove away the darkness, there was not a single living northern soldier left standing in the Santa Mona Fortress.

The city fell and the defenders were wiped out. Only a few reinforcements that arrived later broke through and left with fire. The military tribune, who was granted the power of "dictating the front lines and commanding the armies" by the Northern Parliament, and the nephew of the grand military tribune resisted in the command post with his entourage and the remaining troops until the last moment, until the corridors and aisles were filled with corpses of both enemies and our own. The greenskins began to try to demolish the entire building and set fire to the rooms, and committed suicide in the fire with the last dozen or so defenders.

The news and situation were transmitted back to the Northern Parliament through a mirror spell, and the whole audience fell silent.

After experiencing a long period of "peace and recuperation" of 150 years after the Great War, people seemed unable to adapt to such a heroic act of martyrdom in this war suddenly imposed on the Southern Kingdom. However, for the Estalia people who had already suffered from the devastation of the barbaric invaders, all this was understandable.

The warlord was very angry at the small fortress's stubborn resistance and the casualties it caused to its army, although most of the greenskins were very excited. A bloody battle and then defeating a powerful enemy! There was nothing better for the greenskins.

However, the warlord Gao Maoliang thought more. He realized that if every city and every defender on the road ahead resisted so resolutely, then it would cost him a huge price to achieve the goal that no green-skinned warlord had ever achieved, and it would also make him very far away from that goal.

It was angry, but after some consideration, it made a decision:

The entire fortress was razed to the ground.

This was not as simple as Aiur's ritualistic "razing" of Cheporio. At the time, the tribe was short of manpower, and there were greenskin troops waiting outside who might arrive at any time, so they could only make a quick decision and do some ritual things.

With the arrival of reinforcements from the south and the greenskin Sartosa allies bringing several batches of slaves from all over the south to the army heading north, the warlord had sufficient manpower to do this.

And the difficulty was not that great, because after a long four-month siege and a tragic explosion, the Estalia fortress was now just an empty shell, a shaky and dangerous building.

After knocking down everything that was still standing, the slaves collected all the remains of the dead for the greenskins and gathered them outside the city. The greenskins' artillery fired at the empty city filled with smoke and traces of blood, completely destroying the entire building on the ground, leaving only a wreckage called "The Ruins of the Fortress of Santa Mona".

As for the corpse, after careful consideration, Gao Maoliang did not handle it according to the custom of a greenskin—usually it would be cooked as food, and the bones might be used to make accessories or protective weapons.

It asked the slaves to collect the corpses, and the army set up camp. At the same time, it called its pirate allies and asked them to carry hundreds of corpses to the north and hand over the bodies of the defenders to the Estalia. It also expressed the green-skinned warlord, Gao Maoliang Feilong, the leader of an army of 600,000, his admiration for the tenacity shown by these shrimp warriors. Although they were still killed like meat under the knife of our big guys, they were also the tougher ones among so many shrimps.

At the same time, a request was made that was impossible to fulfill in any case, at least at the moment.

The big warlord is willing to negotiate with the northerners!

As long as its conditions are met, it is willing to withdraw its troops. If the Estalia show enough sincerity and reward, it is not impossible for it to turn its army around and cause trouble for the Estalia's neighboring country Tyrell.

This sudden thunderbolt instantly dispersed the sentimental feelings and hatred of the garrison soldiers of Mona Fortress at the Bilbarri Congress. The Congress was instantly divided into two factions: those who advocated peace and those who advocated war.

Perhaps because the fortress had just fallen, no one dared to ignore such a heroic act, and while both sides were arguing, their own views were based on the soldiers on the front line.

The peace faction believed that the defenders made such sacrifices just to save their homes. Their great courage and sacrifice shocked and severely damaged the greenskins, forcing them to be willing to negotiate with the Northerners. Moreover, in the long tug-of-war offensive and defensive battle, tens of thousands of people had died or been disabled. In the last battle alone, the remaining 20,000 defenders of Mona were wiped out and died heroically.

And now there are less than 60,000 troops left in the North that are capable of fighting.

If the purpose is to defend the city, it would be completely sufficient to conscript civilians into the army. However, if the greenskins do not recklessly attack Bilbarri and Sahagun, but adopt the previous harassment tactics, break up into small groups, cross the plains, cross the Thomas River and enter the rear to burn, kill, loot and harass villages everywhere, the North will pay a heavy price, even more than the South, which has not experienced any major wars except the Battle of the Gedaz River (the main force was still fought by the Northern Army) and the attack and defense of Miramar Kings' Tomb in the southwest.

The soldiers sacrificed their lives to surround their homeland (the North). Now that the North can be preserved, what reason is there to continue to fight them unwisely when the enemy is strong and we are weak?

It is better to negotiate early and buy time, wait until the situation is favorable to us in the future, such as international intervention, the elves, Bretonnia, and the imperial army come to the rescue, and then make a decision to drive out the barbarians and restore the kingdom...

The war faction cursed, saying that the men of the fortress sacrificed themselves for the Kingdom of Estalia, for the goddess Myrmidia, and for their homeland. And this homeland was the entire Kingdom of Estalia. Such a heroic act could inspire and boost the morale of the army and the people so that they would be united and fight to the death. As long as they continued to rely on the strong city, fortify the walls and clear the fields to resist the greenskins, they could blunt their edge and delay time.

We are many in number but the enemy is few. Although the south has been captured, the loyal people are eager to drive out the green barbarians day and night. Our neighboring country Bartor in the east adheres to the way of chivalry and has been on good terms with the Estalia people for generations. The greenskins are at the gates of the city and will never sit idly by and watch us southerners perish and be wiped out. They will definitely raise a large army to rescue us. But the greenskins' momentum has been lost, and the army is exhausted and has suffered heavy casualties. It is a great opportunity for us to ally with each other, unite the north and the south to drive out the enemy!

If we negotiate peace now, nothing else will happen. When our neighboring Bretonnians see it, they will say, "Oh, the greenskins have retreated, you don't want to fight anymore." Then, forget it, I'm too lazy to move.

It won't be so easy to ask that group of autistic hermit otakus to take action then.

Chapter 33: The Death of a Warrior [Second update!]

The Northern Parliament fell into a quarrel, and the greenskin army stopped moving forward, only sending out the vanguard to the city of Sahagen, which injected a strong shot of medicine into both sides.

The peace faction believes that this shows the sincerity of the greenskins in wanting to negotiate. Look, even the greenskins are not going to take any action. Doesn't this show that they are sincere?

The war faction said, "It's obvious that the greenskins have suffered heavy casualties in the capture of the fortress, so they stopped to repair. Negotiation is a delaying tactic! It will also damage the morale of the army and the people. Absolutely not!"

Just like that, when the external threat seemed to have been temporarily "calmed down", the parliament began to engage in daily infighting.

Even the bodies of the soldiers sent back by the greenskins were in Sahagen, and no one paid attention to them for the time being.

The warrior was already dead, and the crowd who watched the incident were all very excited and wanted to make a big fuss about the warrior's death.

In the end, the Grand Military Tribune left Bilbali alone with his guards and brought the bodies of the garrison back to Bilbali. Under the personal auspices of the war leader, commander-in-chief, and grand patriarch of the Church of the Northern Goddess, a grand funeral was held in the "Eagle's Nest" temple. Nearly 20,000 people from the city, including celebrities, nobles, officers, and more civilians, attended the funeral at the same time.

After the funeral, the two factions began to argue on the spot, and both sides believed that the time had come to make a decision as soon as possible.

The Grand Military Tribune, the uncle of the fortress commander who committed suicide by burning himself, stood up at the critical moment. His hair and beard were all white, and with a sad face he stroked the relatively intact face of a dead soldier.

That face was somewhat similar to his nephew's, both were young and handsome.

But his nephew had buried his flesh and blood in the sea of ​​fire to avoid being harmed and humiliated by the greenskins, and he would never come back.

"They are all true warriors... warriors of the kingdom... They have shed their blood for the kingdom, for their faith, and for their homeland..."

"The North..." The old general's voice was sad, his already aged body trembling, and he made a terrible decision.

"No more bloodshed in the North..."

At this moment, the tribune seemed to see in a trance that in the magnificent temple, among the well-dressed crowd, there was an enormous golden shadow that could not be ignored. It shook its head at him, at the crowd, and at all the people present, then turned away in disappointment.

The tribune subconsciously raised his hand to keep him, but he could not say anything. He was a little dazed and his lips were cracked. He asked the servant, "Give me a glass of water..." Then his body suddenly fell forward.

"Oh!"

"!!!"

"grown ups!"

.........

The scene was in chaos, and after it finally calmed down, it fell into an eerie calm again.

The opinion of the tribune himself is obvious. As the highest and irreplaceable military commander in the entire north, if he does not want to continue the war, then is it really time for a temporary truce in this war?

The Grand Patriarch remained silent. Ever since his prayers day after day had received no response from the goddess, and the power of Mirmidia seemed to have really left this world, the Grand Patriarch began to withdraw himself. No one knew what he was thinking in his heart, and no one could get a clear idea from this religious leader. He seemed to have become a puppet with only instincts and prayers, no longer speaking or communicating.

"I propose ... that a secret ballot be held."

Someone in the crowd raised this opinion, and there was still silence in response, but everyone's attitude expressed agreement. The waiters brought boxes and distributed paper and pens.

× is to refuse to cease fire and continue to arm and resist.

○ Contact and negotiate with the greenskins. Even if it costs a "huge" price, try your best to... make a ceasefire with the greenskins, but the condition must be that they withdraw from the north first.

There is no longer any distinction between parliamentarians and civilians, rich and poor; everyone present has the right to cast this vote.

By the time everyone folded the papers and put them in the box, the situation had reached the most critical and silent moment.

The archbishop who had been autistic for a long time suddenly walked down from the altar, took the box that symbolized the future direction of the kingdom from the waiter who was about to count the votes, and began to count the votes himself.

.........

Time passed very slowly and the Grand Master moved very slowly, but no one was dissatisfied with this.

It was not until several hours had passed and many people who were exhausted had to leave that the Grand Master put down the last piece of white paper in his hand.

There were two small boxes in front of him, one on the left and one on the right, with their openings facing the leader. Others could not see clearly what was in the boxes. They only knew that after looking at a ticket, he would throw it into the left or right box.

He turned the two boxes over, placed them on the table, and folded the bills together. It was obvious that the pile on the right was much higher than the pile on the left.

The atmosphere then became even more depressing, with everyone's attention focused on the pile of tickets that was obviously larger.

"Under the guidance of the souls of the kings and the witness of the goddess Myrmidia..." The Archbishop's voice sounded like a piece of red-hot charcoal in his throat, hoarse, unpleasant, dry, and cracked, like the cry of a victim who was dying of thirst.

"I declare that the result of this vote is: Parliament sends envoys to negotiate with the greenskins..."

After saying this, regardless of the uproar at the scene, the Grand Master, with the help of his servants, put all the banknotes back into the boxes. The servants held one on each side, and he held one in his arms, and left silently with the three boxes.

Leaving tens of thousands of people at the funeral in turmoil.

Finally, things gradually returned to calm.

Perhaps even the big warlord Mao Liangbenlu had never thought that the delaying tactic he adopted with a try-it mentality could achieve such an effect.

Once the dawn of peace was seen and the hearts were filled with the desire for peace, the heroic spirit of defending the country with a common hatred of the enemy quietly faded away. The warriors died, and the just revenge was replaced by the call for remembrance and hope for peace.

all of these......

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"Peace talks?"

For a moment, Al thought the red-robed wizard was joking with him.

"What can we negotiate for? Are the greenskin warlords willing to withdraw from Estalia and return the vast territory that they seized so easily because of the favorable conditions?"

"The Invincible Fleet was destroyed, hundreds of thousands of people died, millions of people were displaced, the country was destroyed, half of the country was still occupied by greenskins, the prince was murdered by Skaven assassins, and internal strife was provoked..."

"The Estalia are willing to negotiate a truce under these circumstances? Are the greenskins willing to return the South?"