Warhammer

Otherwise, the Bilbari people might not dare to firmly support their local forces after the arrival of Kael'thas's legion. Garen is still insisting on "guerrilla warfare" in the Saffro Hills.

As a result, even Al's enemies, who should theoretically be paying the most attention to him, overlooked many of his extraordinary deeds.

For example, why did so many beastmen suddenly appear in Pina Forest? Where did those powerful monster armies come from? Why was there no news about them before?

The worship of Al by his people surpassed the standard of secular kings, his extraordinary charisma, and the sudden rise of the Five Seals Church...

All of these are treated as a regular mortal kingdom.

This was the biggest mistake and hubris of the Tyrells in this war:

They equate the "union" under Aiel's rule with themselves.

But what they are really facing is a group of people who are dancing on the mortal stage in the guise of a secular kingdom:

The Chaos Crusade Army!

Although the Five Seals believers within Tirell, even if they existed before the rise of Aiur and those who gradually developed afterwards, are not powerful enough to compete with even the sects of Sigmar, Mannan, and other sects in the south that are inferior to the Myrmidian faith, their advantage is that they are scattered, hidden, and omnipresent.

And many of them hold high positions of power and can play a key role in the war.

Among them, the belief in the Omniscient and the Joyful One was the most successful. Sister Themis and the sixty-six fallen believers under her had already covered the north and south of the two kingdoms long before the birth of Aiur. However, because the birthplace of Aiur was chosen in Estalia, the main power was still in the native land, but it also had considerable influence in Tyrell.

The various ceremonies of "enjoying love and happiness" they held secretly created various followers who converted to "Six" among the wealthy middle class and the powerful.

Similarly, because of their unconditional favors to the poor, the Sisters of Joy, wearing the golden and white robes of the goddess of war, also have a very high prestige among the people. They have even secretly developed a potential civilian believer armed force and a "Sisters of Lovers" composed of high-quality women from all walks of life.

In the human activity area north of the Blighted Swamp, far away from the Tilean civilization, located between dense forests and wetlands, there are many tribes of beastmen settled here. The local Tileans live together with them, surrounded by nature. Over time, the influence of Myrmidia on war, strategy, and wisdom faded among them, replaced by the rooting and sprouting of the totem of the shepherd god of all things, and a few believers of the kind mother who shouted the name of the merciful and forgiving earth mother, the savior of all living things;

During the Greenskin War, the Skavens, who appeared and left quietly, created several plagues in the southern world. In the process of seeking salvation, some doctors and patients who were cured gradually began to chant the same name of the Virgin of Mercy.

There is a mercenary group that has returned from the Badlands. They traveled to the Dwarf Fortress deep in the Badlands and completed an epic mission. When they returned, all of them were equipped with sophisticated weapons made by Dwarf craftsmanship. They accepted several hires and showed amazing fighting power. They even caused two principalities to compete for their contracts. However, the worship of the "Mother Goddess of War" has always been popular among this group. It seems that the latter had performed miracles and saved them at a critical moment. However, this goddess with a different name seems to be different from Myrmidia...

There seems to be some kind of pagan belief popular among some marginal and unsuccessful soldiers, and some force is encouraging them to be brave and fight!

Among the entire Tyrell wizards, scholars, and intellectuals, there has always been a sacred curiosity about the secret library established by the United Kingdom, which is said to "contain two-thirds of the world's knowledge." The mysterious blue bird enlightens wisdom, and the saying that the All-Seeing Eye is her totem continues to be popular in private; and among the bureaucrats and politicians, there are also some small groups that will meet in private to jointly praise the future that a certain omniscient controller of destiny and the Lord of All Possibilities has planned for all living beings.

......

When Ai'er sent his legion to "get off" in the middle section of the Inara Mountains at the cost of almost exhausting the earth vein power accumulated in the Pina Forest, the Chaos believers, cheering fanatically, swiftly wiped out the watchers set up by the Miraglianos in the northernmost part of their territory and converted the survivors into their servants.

The Tyrells were still reveling in the aftertaste of their superiority in the last battle.

Little did they know that the beast with its fangs sharpened and blood sucking had already silently crossed the fence barrier, ignoring the security guards, and was about to break into their warm house, bringing the scorching heat and cold winter that Margarita had faced last summer to Tyrell.

Chapter 64: The Boiling Kingdom

Herds of beasts shuttled through the dense forest, and a huge army was advancing beyond the reach of the Tyrells.

After the corruption of the Great Forest of Athel Loren and the retreat of the Asraim Elves to Ulthun, Beastmen were the only and superior woodland race from Bretonnia to the South Kingdoms and even to the western continent of the Old World including the Empire.

For this decisive battle heading straight for the enemy's capital, Ai'er's army has deployed all its main forces.

After nearly three years of recuperation, and with the development of the eight established legions, the number of Beastmen in the standing order has reached 50,000, which is much slower than the growth rate during the Greenskin War. The main reason is that the Pina Forest has been completely cleared, and the captured Chaos Beasts in the past were often directly transformed into "Angry Horned Beasts" and could be directly added to the legion. Without this source of manpower that is almost equal to that of Martian soldiers, the expansion speed of the Beastmen Legion will inevitably be much slower;

Secondly, after entering a peaceful period, although the Wrathhorn Beast Corps and the Troll Corps, which make war their profession and survive by fighting, do not require maintenance costs, daily training and supplies alone are a huge cost; and Ai'er does not want to use the "Wrathhorns" as the core of the legion. If that happens, the Blood Mother's influence on the army will be so great that it will be difficult to look directly at, which is not conducive to the balance of the Five Seals.

At the same time, Al intentionally increased the proportion of beastmen and humans living together, in order to bring the two sides together and make them move towards multi-racial integration, so he also intentionally slowed down the recruitment of beastmen;

The previous new human army, now the United Kingdom Army, experienced a certain degree of apparent expansion but actual reduction after the war.

The reason for Ming's expansion was that the war had resulted in a large number of refugees and displaced persons, as well as scattered rebel forces, bandits, and so on; at that time, Al did not even have enough manpower to govern the country, let alone enough administrative power to deal with the local areas, so he simply established a large number of "construction armies" with old and new armies and even angry-horned beasts as the core, which were actually militia forces.

Because the military is different from the administration, as long as this system has enough authority to suppress people from top to bottom, it can get things done effectively.

A large number of refugees were dispersed to various regions by El, with sergeants as the core and a certain number of officials as the support, under the name and organization of one "Production and Construction Army" after another, to organize reconstruction, restoration, reclamation and other work. At the same time, in this way, talents with governance capabilities were selected from the army for transfer and promotion.

This system effectively restored the kingdom's control over the local areas and accelerated the recovery of people's livelihood. During the heyday of the militia system, the kingdom once had more than 300,000 registered "militia" troops, an extremely exaggerated scale. Although the vast majority of them were disbanded before the halfway point of the three-year plan as local work was successfully carried out and turned into ordinary local governance, a certain essence was retained and transferred to the standing troops.

The kingdom's new human army also faced a medium-scale layoff. The three old new armies, "Storm", "Fearless" and "Revenge", the 30,000 new troops expanded for the Northern Expedition, the 10,000 troops squeezed out from the Pina refugees, and the "Restoration Alliance" contributed by the southern warlords, all added up, the number of human soldiers under El's command was really close to 100,000 at one point, but this was at the cost of almost stagnant production development. After the war, there was naturally no need for such a large army.

The three earliest established and meritorious old and new armies, each with a strength of 10,000, were retained. Ai'er then streamlined the remaining personnel and finally established two new standing forces, the "Griffin" and the "Iron Guard". As a compromise with tradition and for the purpose of shifting the financial burden to the local areas, Ai'er gave each major city the right to form a city defense army, but the size was limited, and they had to regularly accept command and instructors sent by the center for "supervision".

This part of the local garrisons is not included in the combat force, which means that the standing military strength of the United Kingdom is "50-50", with humans and beastmen in half, with a size of 100,000 battle groups.

This is after Aiur has taken as much essence as possible and removed as much dross as possible. It is enough to support another war of the scale of the Greenskin War without affecting the scale of national development too much.

Including the conquest of Tyrell, the 100,000 people that Aiel envisioned would be completely sufficient, at least for military purposes.

The United Kingdom has been growing steadily, and the enhanced armaments have placed a huge burden on the kingdom's finances. Al only had the resources to implement his three-year plan after he won the war and, in the name of purging traitors, he ruthlessly purged the powerful class in the country.

Even so, although the administrative power expanded through the Five Seals, such as governing the country with religion and using the military as officials, was efficient and clear, Ai'er had, after all, leapt from a tribal leader of tens of thousands of people to the king of a large country with a population of millions in less than two years. Although this new state machine was effective, it faced many problems and shortcomings from top to bottom.

Margarita is the best place and a model city. What is shown here is the highest standard of the entire kingdom rather than the average. Ai'er's three-year plan has achieved great construction results, but it has also paid a huge effort and price.

Simply put, his treasury is almost empty.

Although by the third year, the estimated revenue and expenditure given by the financial department had begun to be in surplus, this was a miracle for a country that was almost destroyed by the Greenskin War. They quickly recovered and were developing towards a height that surpassed that before the war. Unfortunately, the arrival of another war broke this upward trend - [The enemy declared war on us - the three-year plan was interrupted! ]

As soon as the conflict broke out, the connection between the colonies and the mainland, which had largely supported the domestic economic development and the recovery of people's livelihood in the past, began to become intermittent. On the one hand, the local autonomous forces were wavering, and on the other hand, the people were responding conservatively to the extremely unstable sea routes.

The number of merchant ships traveling back and forth was also gradually decreasing. The targeting by pirates and the blatant behavior of the Tyrells made most sailors worried about this golden route. Therefore, they would rather take a long detour or go to Tyrell to trade at the "enthusiastic invitation" of the Tyrell patrol fleet.

The sharp drop in trade revenue immediately brought the United Kingdom's finances to an extremely dangerous edge, just as the Tyrells had predicted:

Their blockade alone could bring down this "wise and brave" king who was "invincible" throughout his rise.

After all, Al, or the Four Mothers, cannot yet provide the millions of believers who have converted to the Five Seals with food without having to open their mouths.

As long as the war cannot be fought, the United Kingdom can only "wait and die" in this war.

Al obviously wouldn't do that.

......

"The enemy is in the south!"

"The enemy is in Milage!"

Marshall rode a scorpion-tailed lion, wearing armor with a hexagram engraved on his chest, and circled above the Redemption Army.

The former commander of the Watchers, now the first freshman of the Redemption Army, shouted enthusiastically to his fellow soldiers who were infected by anger and war enthusiasm:

"No mercy, no mercy! Killing one corrupted one can redeem ten people! Destroy the Northern Legion and liberate Miragliano! All the Tyrells and all the new people will be grateful for the path we have opened up!"

"Let the kingdom boil!"

Chapter 65: Tyrell Assault!

When the first report of the "beast pack" attack was delivered from the Northern Legion to the Black Castle and presented to the Prince's desk.

In the Withered Swamp, Ai'er's army also crossed the ruins of the ratmen. The Miragliano military base, which was originally set up here to monitor the situation in the abandoned city of demon rats and later became a military base for clearing out the surrounding beasts and monsters, has turned into a sea of ​​fire.

The heavily armored Minotaur troops destroyed the Tyrell troops, who had barely organized themselves out of panic, with just one charge. Then, more soldiers poured in like a tide, completely destroying the Tyrell resistance.

What followed was a "massacre". Those who managed to escape fled into woods and swamps, but they were also hunted by wolves and beastmen, and in the end no one could escape.

All the captives were incorporated into the "Redemption Army" commanded by Commander Marshall. There, the "new people" who had undergone unimaginable terrible trials and were finally converted to the right faith would impose everything they had experienced on their compatriots. Those who survived would be marked with five seals and turned into new people warriors. As for the death rate of more than half of the captives, no one would care.

Aiel's army marched southward with overwhelming force, and its speed of advance was even faster than the speed at which the Northern Army could report back to the Principality. While his legion was advancing like an unstoppable force, the Chaos believers lurking in Miragliano also used their own methods to start chaos, attacking from all directions and slowing down Miragliano's reaction speed.

The fallen nuns held a large-scale luxurious banquet, which attracted a large number of dignitaries from the principality. Then, assassins attacked and large-scale poisoning of dignitaries occurred at the venue, which dealt a heavy blow to the entire elite class of Miragliano.

The followers of "Six" openly instigated uprisings in slums, docks and ports, saying, "A son of a commoner travels thousands of miles just to kill the son of another commoner - if it is for wealth and for the future, then the wealth and future that we have created with our own hands are just around the corner!" "A good life has never been created by war." They began to attack the wealthy class, gather crowds to make trouble, and after being suppressed by the garrison troops, they fled to the countryside.

A small group of radical officers believed that "monopolizing rights through bloodline and hereditary wealth and allowing a person to be born into a high position is a betrayal of the free spirit of Tyrell." They connected with each other in the army, hoping to overthrow the noble business princes. However, it was still that group of people who controlled the situation in the country.

The turmoil created by the followers of the Five Seals had been brewing just before Aiel's army marched south. It is unknown how much love, hatred, and heroic stories were involved.

The entire Tyrell Duchy seemed to have suddenly entered a state of "vigorous vitality and flourishing development" in just a few days. Situations occurred one after another, making it difficult for the people around them and even themselves to figure out what exactly was happening.

How come there are traitors in the army one moment and civilians rioting in the local area the next?

Even the Miragliano court, known as the "Octopus Spider", was overwhelmed by the sudden emergence of so many situations.

But anyone with a little sensitivity can realize the weirdness behind this.

In response to the situations that continued to occur in various places, the prince sent more manpower to find out the reasons behind them, mobilized troops to suppress them, and at the same time, ordered the city defense forces of Miragliano to step up their vigilance.

The troops previously sent to Tobaro that were still on the way stopped marching and awaited the next instructions, and the fleet remaining in the mainland was ordered to return to the port first. In order to prevent the Invincible Fleet from being sunk without firing a single shot, the Tirells expanded many backup and hidden ports for the fleet to facilitate dispersed stationing.

But all this meant little to Al who was advancing rapidly. His troops broke through the Northern Legion, which had nearly a quarter of the entire Principality of Miragliano's strength, almost immediately after the Northern Legion sent Miragliano an urgent military warning that "they were suddenly attacked by a large number of enemies and their positions had been broken through by the enemies". It took less than half a day in total.

When the commander of the Northern Army, Dulles, saw the enemy coming in full force, he abandoned his troops and tried to escape, but was kidnapped by an omniscient believer staff officer who was lurking beside him and was captured.

Nearly six thousand soldiers were killed or captured, and a large number of wolves and centaurs were sent out to hunt down the deserters and prevent them from regrouping. Faced with these natural hunters, it is estimated that only one in ten people could escape intact.

The entire Withered Swamp was now unobstructed for Aiel's legion. There were only a few scattered military stations, strongholds, and a few small towns on the road east to Miragliano.

There was no need for Ai'er to go to great lengths for this. The centaurs and wolves led by Alia and Hera, who were galloping across the plains, had already rushed to the enemy's faces before they could react to whether to retreat or set up defenses. Faced with aliens whose bodies were larger than those of ordinary humans, a scarlet massacre quickly wiped out this insignificant obstacle that could not even be called an obstacle.

The bloody wolf-head flag of the Fourth Legion appeared outside the city of Miragliano almost at the same time as the fleeing defeated soldiers. On the way forward, most of the Tyrell civilians did not even know what was happening around them. During the assault of the Aiel Legion, some local civilians even mistook the human soldiers of the United Kingdom for the Duchy's army and brought large and small bags to reward them, which was a black humor.

This kind of "blitzkrieg" in which the main force was directly airdropped into the enemy's rear area had only occurred a few times in the entire medieval world. When the news that the United Kingdom's army rushed out from the mountains, moved south from the Withered Swamp, and headed straight for Miragliano spread to all parts of the country, many people who heard this information for the first time thought that there was a madman among their men!

Even when the prince himself received the information in the middle of the night that "the Northern Legion has been destroyed and the main force of the enemy is advancing towards Miragliano", his first reaction was that he had offended his wife by forcing Isabella to go to the monastery to do blasphemous things last time, and she was setting him up with this joke.

After confirming the news, he communicated with several retreating soldiers from the front line through mirror magic, and then he began to think and ask four questions with a shocked face:

Say it again?

Where did it come from?

how come?

How dare you?

He even wondered if his previous provocation had irritated Al too much, so he made such a desperate and crazy move of taking the main force over the mountains to steal the home base.

But Al was very clear about his purpose:

There is only one goal!

Miragliano!

Seize this city located in the northernmost part of Tirell, which has the status of a semi-capital.

Then use this as a base to isolate Tobaro, head south to Trantio, and the legion will break into the open Tirell Plain!

The army of men and beasts will tear the ignorant arrogance of the Tyrells to pieces on land, and their proud ships will be left to wander on the sea.

Of course, it would be best if the bastard who sent the letter could be caught and publicly executed.

When the time comes, bring out the person and the letter and make them public, and don't worry about over-expansion or tension.

......

Ai'er rode on the back of the Queen, flying across the sky surrounded by a group of griffins. Looking at the thick smoke rising from the ground, another city was captured by his army.

He looked towards the east and seemed to be able to vaguely see the outline of a huge city that was as magnificent as Margarita.

Hera sent information that the wolf girl lured the enemy and ambushed a team of Tyrell mercenaries who were sent out by Miragliano to drive them away. Hundreds of people were slaughtered, and only twenty or so survivors escaped.

She has already had the angryhorns begin making skull cannons and skull throwers using the enemy's corpses, and is asking for El's instructions on whether to begin preparations for the siege.

The people in the city still have a unclear understanding of the situation outside. According to the information brought back by the believers, there are all kinds of news inside, and rumors are flying everywhere. Black Castle has ordered a curfew, and soldiers with royal flags can be seen everywhere on the streets to maintain order.

There was a lot of discussion among the civilians. Some said it was a pirate attack, some said it was the work of rebels, some said a small group of beasts broke through the defense line and headed south, and some even said Tobaro had turned the tables and attacked Miragliano together with the United Kingdom.

Because the Tyrells didn't understand. Hadn't we just bombarded the enemy's capital, the battle situation was going very well, and we had the advantage?

Why did the capital suddenly go into martial law and enter city defense mode?

Al then allowed Hera to assemble the skull cannon and fire at night, with the aim of disrupting the people in the city and undermining the morale of the enemy.

As for attacking the city, let's wait for his army to arrive first.

[It’s almost time anyway]

Chapter 66: Siege of Miragliano (I)

Bombarding Miragliano.

The skull cannon is a crude piece of equipment that can be made by the hands of an angry-horned beast. It reminds Al of the "power of my thoughts". In fact, its power and range are very average, and it may not even be as powerful as a large cannon that can hit people head-on.

But there are two advantages. First, as long as there are corpses and certain materials, the angry-horned beasts can rub them by hand in the way of "I think this will definitely be a blood sacrifice to the Blood Mother, which is very glorious." Second, it is durable. The shells fired can be made of corpses, which has the effect of shocking the enemy and undermining morale.

The vanguard army led by the commander of the Fourth Legion took a day and a half to build eight guns, and fired at Miragliano. Although the effect was not great, and they even lost four guns due to bursting barrels and counterattacks from the city walls, the effect was achieved.

Not long after the Golden Palace was bombarded, the Black Castle, which was also famous for its special status as the residence of the king, was counterattacked by the enemy. In fact, the naval guns did not hit the Golden Palace, nor did the Black Castle at the beginning, but this did not prevent the residents of Miragliano from feeling panic.

This is not the kind of harassment where the enemy comes from the sea and then runs away after bombarding!