Warhammer

Isabella pushed the door open and walked in. She had changed out of her gorgeous royal attire and put on a set of light women's armor.

In the South, even women love to learn the skill of dueling.

"Fulfill your mission!"

She scolded in a tender voice, causing everyone in the meeting room to hurry up and get busy again, but everyone had clearly realized one thing:

The war situation is rapidly developing in a direction that is unfavorable to the Principality.

The prince's gaffe exposed this cruel fact to everyone, but the prestige and popular support of the city prince regime represented by the Visconti family, which had been cultivated for three generations, could not be easily shaken.

Even if they know that something is impossible, nine out of ten people in this room will still serve to the end.

The Miraglianos are worthy of being the leader of the Tyrell principalities. Here is the Great Temple where the Eastern Patriarch of the Church of War resides; there is the defense system and city structure designed by the legendary genius Leonardo Miragliano himself; there is the outstanding military legacy left by "Besieger" Poggio - even after his death, the country was torn into pieces and there was the chaos, as well as the blow brought by the great war, but the name alone and the achievements behind it are a great heritage that can inspire the Miraglianos to stand proudly in the southern land.

Under the four-pronged attack from Aiel's sea, land and air, they still persisted in resisting, using their flesh and blood to slow down the advance of Aiel's army.

But all this has become a foregone conclusion under the general trend.

As the situation in the city became more chaotic, the Chaos followers hiding among the Tyrells could make trouble more easily. When part of the Aiel Legion entered the city through the underground passage and started a massacre, causing the defenders to be in a dangerous situation with enemies everywhere, they united to create a big news——

"BOOM~~~!!!"

The gunpowder in the sturdy underground warehouse was ignited by the Five Indians lurking in the city, causing a shocking explosion. The impact caused the city wall closest to it, which was facing the underground impact, to shake and then shatter.

The spellcasters in the army outside the city immediately summoned the power of the Wind of the Gate of Piety, turning the broken ruins into a solid, flat slope, shouting:

"For Al!!!"

"Blood sacrifice to the Blood Mother! Sacrifice the skull to the throne!"

"Five seals are the greatest!"

With various war cries, the El Army vanguard warriors who had been prepared for a long time immediately rushed forward and poured into the city!

It was only five days before Hera set up the artillery and fired the first shell at the city in front of her.

The walls of Miragliano were breached.

Chapter 71: Punishment Attack!

Ai'er's legion encountered fierce resistance when entering the city. Even though the city walls had been breached, the Miragliano people's will to fight had not been lost, so the street fighting was extremely brutal. Because of concerns about casualties and other psychological reasons, Ai'er no longer restrained his subordinates, and the legion immediately opened fire at full power, using all means to open a way forward.

After the gap was opened, Hera, the big wolf cub, and her wolf pack quickly rushed into the city as fresh forces, but they also suffered the first wave of head-on attacks. Faced with life and death, even civilian men and women who had not been conscripted before were mobilized to take up arms and block the enemy troops from entering the city in the streets.

Under Aiel's orders, the Legion would ignore those civilians who did not reveal hostility and continue to pursue them by bypassing them.

But strictly speaking, this was the first time that Al and his legion attacked a completely hostile city in an unfamiliar foreign land. They had basically no experience and had to rely on exploration.

For example, Al ordered to minimize the casualties among civilians in the siege as much as possible to avoid provoking resistance, but he overlooked one thing:

The local people may not necessarily accept their arrival, even on the battlefield.

How to effectively distinguish between soldiers and civilians is also a very troublesome issue on a battlefield where the situation changes rapidly. After many defeated soldiers retreated from the city walls, they simply relied on civilian houses and retreated into residential areas to continue their resistance. They hid in various places and tried their best to block the advancing enemy forces. Many citizens gave them great help in this process, and even spontaneously took up arms to join the war.

These people can turn from civilians into enemies at any time - they are equivalent to the background boards and map scenes. When you ignore them and continue to move forward, suddenly one or more enemies will appear from behind and attack. When you turn around, there are obstacles everywhere. Enemies may be hiding in the gatehouse, fences, and even cellars.

This posed a significant obstacle to the Legion's advance, because enemies might be hiding in every house, and any citizen who ignored the situation might turn around, pick up a weapon, and attack the Legion soldiers from behind.

The hot-tempered Hera was furious after receiving continuous reports of her soldiers being attacked in this way. She could accept the wolves fighting to the death against powerful enemies on the battlefield, but she could not tolerate being worn down in the enemy's city in this way.

So she asked Al twice and finally got her father's permission.

The wolf girl ordered the army to throw alchemical bombs to clear the way, and even to carry out bombing, to blow up or set on fire all buildings that could not be guaranteed to be safe or dangerous, to prevent people from hiding inside.

All civilians were shouted at and driven away, either to take to the streets or to avoid the Legion's attack route to avoid accidental injuries. As for the innocent people who hid for fear of being massacred and eventually died in the fire and lack of oxygen, everything would have to wait until after the war to be dealt with.

The actions of the Fourth Legion, as well as various factors in this war, eventually caused a fire that affected nearly half of the city, and all buildings in the United Kingdom Legion's offensive path suffered varying degrees of damage.

A great war and a great fire. Miragliano, which had not experienced war for hundreds of years, encountered both one after another.

As the Fourth Corps adopted the ruthless "scorched-room tactics", the biggest obstacle to the advance was also eliminated. The five-India flags marched all the way to the large square in the center of the city and successfully joined forces with the landing troops that had penetrated into the city from the port, one from the south and one from the north.

The Southern Twin Kingdoms are like a pair of lotus flowers, with a very close cultural heritage, especially after the remnants of the two forces merged for a period of time after the great war.

The architectural layout and style are very similar, and it is difficult for outsiders to distinguish the difference between the two countries based solely on their clothing and conversation.

Buildings such as large squares, meeting places, and town halls are landmark buildings in almost every southern city.

The Tyrell flag with a white background and a blue sword, waving in the smoke of war, was lowered, and the five seals, six-pointed star and double-headed eagle were erected high, overlooking the city that was almost conquered by them.

The reason why it is described as "close to conquest" is that there is still a vital place in the city that has not been captured. Without taking that place, even if the legion slaughters all the soldiers and civilians in the city, it cannot be said that it has completely controlled Miragliano.

The headquarters of the Visconti family, the Prince's Palace of the Principality of Miragliano.

Black Castle.

Misha didn't care what his last name was or how noble his name was, as to the city prince who tried to provoke Al with despicable provocations and who, as a leader, was extremely rude in humiliating another ruler.

What she has to do is clear:

Arrest their leader and bring him to justice before the Emperor!

As the eldest daughter who does not have the title of Warmaster but has at least one-third of the power of a Warmaster, El appointed her as the supreme commander in his absence (but at the same time, all his sons and heirs need to discuss matters together to avoid being arbitrary and tyrannical). The eldest daughter has a huge influence on her brothers.

At the beginning of the war, it was to stimulate the brothers to go all out, and at the same time, to avenge the humiliation inflicted on Aiur by the Tyrells.

Misha did something against El's wishes—it was not an order. If El had given an order, she would never have disobeyed it. But El did not order her to keep silent. He just expressed a little attitude in this regard. Mainly, El thought it was very interesting, so he didn't take it seriously.

The eldest daughter showed the letter from Miragliano to all her sons. Only Kael'thas did not react because he knew about it in advance. Even Barbatos, the most friendly of all the sons, angrily expressed his intention to "deal with" the Visconti clan. Except for Aiur, who was a docile big dog in front of him, Hera, who was famous for her violent and bellicosity among her brothers, was furious at the Tyrells who wanted to steal her father to be her mother. She immediately proposed to carry out a massacre of ten or five people after the city was captured as a punishment.

From the beginning of the battle, they were fighting in anger, which naturally caused a large number of "innocent" casualties.

In a highly autocratic country like the United Kingdom where the three powers are combined under the rule of the God of War and the King, "I am the State" - "Al is the State" is a common totem from the government to the people.

In the hearts of the people, King Aiel is above all else; in the hearts of his children, their father (who is also the king) is above all else.

Al can incite war against anyone he wants, and he can associate with anyone he wants, but he never abuses this power to make the final decision.

In turn, the people of the United Kingdom apply this perspective to other countries.

The humiliation uttered by Prince Miragliano naturally represented the entire Miragliano.

Misha knew how kind her little father was, and even laughed out loud after seeing through Rodrigo's self-righteous conspiracy. She humbled herself and wrote a very humble reply to the other party.

But she would never swallow her anger.

Al doesn't care, but she can't.

What's more, this war was instigated by Tyrell, so there is a legitimate reason to "punish" him.

Chapter 72: I do my duty!

This war was undoubtedly a disaster for Miragliano.

The morale and bravery of the Tyrell soldiers and civilians are worthy of recognition, but not everyone has the will to fight to the end in the face of a powerful enemy.

When the war broke out, in order to stabilize the morale of the defenders and not to be branded as cowards who fled before the battle, the nobles who were able to leave the city to avoid the war did not flee immediately - this was also due to the order of the Black Castle. The prince ordered the nobles not to leave the city, otherwise they would be severely punished after the war. The prestige of the Visconti family for three generations had a great influence in the hearts of both dignitaries and ordinary people on the street, so the prince's order was well executed in the beginning, because most people had confidence in the defense of Miragliano and did not believe that the beastmen could break through the city.

When the port fell and the war spread to the city, this confidence was greatly shaken;

When the city wall was breached and the enemy's frontal troops poured into the city, the confidence in defending the city immediately led to a cliff-like collapse. A large number of citizens began to seek escape, but they were surrounded by the enemy in every direction. The port had fallen, and the roads out of the city were blocked. There were also monsters such as griffins, scorpion-tailed lions, and flying dragons patrolling in the sky. Even if they managed to escape the city, they would be tracked down by the centaurs and wolves wandering around the periphery. They would either resist to death or be captured.

However, those wealthy or noble people who were qualified and had the means to use the teleportation spell and tried to escape were horrified to find that the entire magical wind of Miragliano had been affected by some powerful force and the teleportation spell had become ineffective.

Some found themselves still in the city after teleportation, or even on the street, facing beastmen and human soldiers who were rapidly attacking the inner city; some left half of their bodies behind after teleportation, with only part of themselves teleported away.

Most of the time, they are simply unusable, and even the most powerful light mage cannot guarantee that the teleportation spell used in this situation can ensure the safety of the teleported person, rather than the situations mentioned above.

But there is another way to escape safely:

"Thanks to" the Tyrells' "fine tradition" of family feuds and fights to the death for thousands of years, many families would more or less prepare some preventive measures to prevent being attacked by the enemy, in which case all the family members would be killed and their vitality would be lost.

Under every Tyrell city, there must be many secret passages built by a family or individuals that can be used to escape to the outer city or lead to the outside of the city.

Generally speaking, the former is more common, because family feuds, especially in a big city like Miragliano, rarely form a siege of the entire city. As long as you can jump out of the siege, it is enough to escape through other secret channels, gather forces to counterattack, or even seek refuge from other close neutral families.

But there are still many secret passages that lead directly out of the city.

But the Skaven who spent all day exploring underground in Miragliano already knew all about this and handed it over to the United Kingdom.

Soon, the dignitaries who tried to escape through the secret passage ran into the enemy who had been lying in ambush for a long time and were quickly killed or disarmed.

In the end, a large number of dignitaries who had no way to escape and did not want to surrender for the time being - at least not before the prince - and the remaining soldiers in the city had no choice but to retreat to the Black Castle, where there was the last line of defense.

Because of the small family background, the previous generations of Visconti heads attached great importance to the survival of the family. The first Visconti to ascend the throne was worried that family members would be assassinated by hostile forces, so he invested a lot of resources to expand Miragliano. On the newly developed land, he used the family's private wealth to build a castle in the city.

That is Blackburg.

Then, regardless of the discussions and ridicule of outsiders, the prince's office was forcibly set up there. After the second and third generations of Visconti came to power, the Black Castle was the royal palace, which had become a "tradition" in the hearts of the Miragliano people.

Four generations of princes would expand and reinforce this inner castle as the foundation of the entire family. If Visconti lost his princely throne in the future, he could still have a place in the principality just by relying on this black castle.

And on the other side.

After learning that the city wall had fallen and the enemy had broken into the city in a large number, the young prince's hands and feet turned cold and he slumped in his chair in a daze, and he did not respond to his servants' calls.

If the princess had not stepped forward to stabilize the situation, the disabled prince would probably have had no choice but to be carried away by the guards.

Isabella managed to stabilize the situation with great difficulty, but at this point when the situation was about to collapse and there was no way to save it, she could only order the prince and important members to try to escape from the city through the secret passage under the Black Castle, seeking an opportunity to retreat to Trantio and other places.

But halfway through, the prince suddenly came to his senses and thought:

"If we leave now and hand the country and the city over to the enemy, everything in Visconti will be destroyed!"

He ordered his family members to escape through secret passages, while he himself stayed behind to fight to the end.

"If I die here, the glory of my family will be more solid. After we recapture Miragliano in the future, the Visconti will still be a princely family!"

The prince said this, trying to convince his wife.

Isabella was extremely anxious about this.

Don't you remember what you wrote in that letter of yours?

Even if the enemy didn't catch Rodrigo, they would just make the two letters public and put all the blame on Rodrigo. It was Rodrigo who humiliated Al, and that's why the United Kingdom "raised an army in anger". Now all the suffering that Miragliano had experienced would be blamed on the Visconti family!

The dead can't open their mouths to refute!

The only way is to escape and go to other duchies to accumulate strength and plan for recovery. Then, even if the enemy openly provokes him, the prince can deny it with all his might. Other forces in Tyrell may give support for the sake of unity against foreign enemies, so as to avoid a devastating blow to the nature of this war in the minds of the military and civilians.

"We can fight the beastmen for the goddess! For money! For land or fucking glory!"

"But why should we be dragged into bleeding for the despicable and stupid things done by a stupid prince?"

But the devastated prince had fallen into a self-anesthetized illusion. In Rodrigo's mind, he would be the last casualty of this war, dying in a tragic way. His death would become a legend, a glory, and a great deed that would inspire the Tirells to fight for their country.

He refused to listen to his wife's advice.

Because the prince had his own considerations on this, which were exactly the opposite of his wife's.

If he abandons this city that his family has run for hundreds of years and leaves, not to mention that he would be letting down his family, the fact that his enemies would write to him publicly would cause a devastating blow to his personal prestige and reputation. The provocation of the war and the failure of the war would all be blamed on him!

Although there was no such term as "social death" in the Middle Ages, being despised by everyone and being disgraced in the streets was definitely not something a young and successful prince could accept.

That would also affect the family's reputation, and from then on the name of Rodrigo Visconti Miragliano would become a symbol of stupidity, arrogance, and error!

Such an ending might be more difficult for the prince to accept than death!

......

"The Field and Jon families are coming with people."

The guard walked up to the prince who was arguing with his wife and reminded him quietly.

The enemy has not yet reached the Black Castle. There is still time to decide whether to fight or retreat.

Before Isabella could speak, the prince's eyes lit up and he quickly asked, "How many people did they bring?"

"About two to three hundred people, and some soldiers who have retreated from the front line."

"great!"

The prince said repeatedly: "Incorporate all the men into the army and tell them that I, the Prince of Miragliano, will fight with them in the Black Castle until the last moment."

"As for Field and Jon, their family members can leave if they want."

"And..." The prince seemed to have returned to a few days ago, when he was the supreme commander and military commander of the principality, and was in charge of everything.

He looked at his wife, took a deep breath and said:

"If you want to leave, go with your people. I will stay. I am a prince and I have to fulfill my duties."

Isabella opened her mouth, her red lips trembled a few times, but she could not utter any words of advice.