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Chapter 131: White Slave Trade

Mariana said nothing. With the stealth skills unique to thieves, she suddenly disappeared into thin air. Leopard Woman had recently successfully advanced to a first-level thief and learned this stealth technique. The two leopards disappeared together and moved silently on the deck with the special structure of their paw pads.

The Leopard Girl quietly went around Luther's back and jumped onto his back. She knew she couldn't bite through or tear through his full body armor, so she simply used her impact force and weight to try to knock him to the ground, but Luther was faster! The black wings that covered the sky and the sun spread out, and with a sweep, the Leopard Girl who attacked from behind was directly knocked away along with several falling black feathers.

At the same time, Mariana appeared from her right side like a ghost, and used the monk's inch-force technique to slap his right arm hard with her huge leopard claws. The violent impact numbed the dark angel's entire forearm through the plate armor for a short period of time, and he lost his grip on the long sword and fell to the ground weakly.

Mariana succeeded in one strike, then ran away with the weapon he dropped in her mouth - all professions have restraint relationships. Rogues and monks can cause high damage to spellcasters with weak defenses, and even kill them with a sneak attack, but facing this kind of high-defense iron armor can, there is really no good countermeasure.

It would be safer to let someone else fight against a level 7 heavy armor warrior like Luther El'Jonson.

"What the hell-"

Luther shook his numbed arms and was about to chase after them, but he saw six psychic swords emitting purple halos flying out of the lower cabin. They were like six purple flying stars, whistling and tearing through the air, rushing towards him!

He raised his shield to protect his head, throat, and chest, but the flying sword seemed to have its own intelligence, bypassing his frontal defense and drawing incredible arcs in the air, attacking from the eye holes of the helmet, the armpits that could not be covered by the armor, the back knees, joints, and wings! With the horrifying sound of metal and flesh rubbing against each other, scarlet wounds were torn out, and flowers of blood were splashed, which really hurt the Janissaries in front of him.

Winged Luther felt some pain after having his joints pierced by six long swords. He half-knelt on the ground, not knowing where these long swords came from. At this moment, a tall and handsome demon, protected by psychic bones and surrounded by purple flames, gracefully appeared in front of him. The terrifying psychic waves spread out, and the six arms covered with magic patterns and the beautiful face made Luther a little dazed, as if he was looking at a blasphemous statue carved out of flesh and blood.

After a successful attack, Aenarion immediately activated his demon transformation and charged forward like lightning. With six arms, he pulled out the sword that had pierced Luther's body one by one with dazzling movements, and held it in his hands again, launching a second round of fierce attack on the knight in front of him.

The six transforming blades instantly turned into six one-handed war hammers that were easy to penetrate armor. They smashed down from the air like drumsticks, and accompanied by the clanging sound of metal, they made terrifying dents on the ancient Crusader plate armor.

Luther tried to draw the spare weapon at his waist, but his action was too slow. Aenarion used his terrifying speed in demon form to

His two arms swung two war hammers, like two silver lightning bolts, and at the same time, his palms and backs of his hands exploded! Even his gauntlets were smashed with horrible cracks, and fragments of armor and flesh and blood splashed in all directions.

Luther subconsciously swung his shield at the enemy, but he couldn't break the psychic ribs burning with purple magic flames! Aenarion used Death Coil to make a ghost skull burning with purple and blue flames explode in his chest! Heavy armor can block the sharp edge of a sword, but it can't block the bombardment of magic.

The only ones who can defeat a heavily armored warrior are warriors with thicker armor and stronger attack power, as well as mages who can cast powerful spells that ignore armor. And Aenarion is exactly the combination of the two.

The level 5 double elite, with the terrifying enhancement of the demon form, almost crushed the level 7 Janissary warrior in all aspects.

Luther failed in his boarding attempt and flapped his wings to escape. Astarielle also chased after him at this moment, pointing her slender jade fingers at his wings and shooting a khaki laser beam, causing his left wing to secrete dark yellow oil, which then solidified into solid, heavy rock, dragging his body as he fell powerlessly onto the deck.

Aenarion grabbed his arms with both hands, and used his hands to fight against his black wings. Finally, his two arms suddenly took off his helmet, revealing a haggard middle-aged face, and then grasped the sharp blade and placed it across his neck.

Luther looked at the sharp blade across his neck, calmly threw away his shield, removed the wings displayed in his beast form, and even threw away the spare hammer at his waist, and said very calmly.

"Congratulations, powerful privateer captain. You have won and caught a big fish. I am Luther El'Jonson, the general officer of new recruits of the First Janissary Legion and a Hurricane Wing Knight. I demand the treatment of a prisoner that matches my knighthood, and that my family be allowed to use the ransom to buy my freedom. You see, there is no benefit in killing me, and it may even bring you into enmity with the First Legion. If you release me, you will get a large ransom."

"First take off this man's armor and tie him up. We'll talk to him later."

At Aenarion's command, Mariana and Leopard Woman removed his plate armor and tied his hands behind his back. During the whole process, Luther cooperated extremely well and did not try to resist.

At this moment, the battle between the ships was basically decided. Although the stern was hit, the size of the caravel was such that even if it took on water, it would not sink for several hours. There was plenty of time to repair it. The zombies took advantage of their height and fired several more shotgun shells at the Ottomans after they hit them, leaving corpses all over the ground and blood flowing like a river. Then, under the command of Artemisia, they rushed forward and soon blew up the galley, turning it into a river of blood.

The galley that was paralyzed by the chain bullet surrendered immediately after seeing the fate of its companions.

Aenarion took inventory and found that the two ships had a total of twelve cannons, twenty Janissaries, and one hundred and sixty ordinary sailors, most of whom were not even professionals. Some of them died from shotgun shells, including Luther. Thirteen Janissaries and sixty sailors were captured.

Speaking of which, Izhar Kayan dared to go to the Black Sea to capture slaves with only a dozen Janissaries and a bunch of rowing sailors. Is it so easy to capture slaves there?

"Yes, the powerful privateer captain."

After Luther was captured, he followed him.

“On the northern shore of the Black Sea, whether it’s the Slavic beastmen, the Viking half-giants, or the Mongolian green-skinned orcs, they are all a group of bloodthirsty and warlike barbarians. The people living in the cold grasslands in the north are extremely short of food.

Many times, we don't need to attack them. We can just use the rich supplies of the Ottoman Empire in exchange for their attacks on enemy tribes and get the captives. The cheapest half-giant slave can be exchanged for a piece of pottery or a copper jewelry.

If a tribe suffered from famine in the cold winter, they could easily buy their own children, wives, or even bring themselves to serve as soldiers on the Ottoman side, without even taking prisoners. "

Chapter 132: The Rich Widow

Aenarion always felt that this method of kidnapping white slaves sounded familiar. Could it be that the black slave trade in later generations was learned from the Ottomans?

He led a group of zombies down the filthy, stuffy deck. These Ottomans really didn't treat slaves as human beings. The narrow cabin, which was thirty meters long and two meters high, was actually densely packed with three hundred blond, blue-eyed half-giant slaves! Not to mention sitting down or lying down, even standing was a little difficult. Countless white pieces of flesh squeezed, twisted, and squirmed together, just like the early morning subway in Japan, or the train to Auschwitz.

They were stripped of all their clothes to make it easier for the Ottomans to check for physical illnesses. Men, women, young and old, were all naked and pressed together, making creepy wailing sounds. Large hands wailed and stretched out from the iron bars, making miserable cries.

Aenarion immediately opened the iron bars, let everyone go, and returned their clothes and dignity. The lower cabin of the second ship also held more than 300 blond and blue-eyed half-giants with an average height of about two and a half meters. The freed half-giants looked at these fully armed zombies and the extremely handsome privateering captain in awe, not knowing what their own fate would be.

"I am Aenarion, a privateer captain under the Knights Hospitaller. I am here to fight the Ottomans and rescue the slaves. Where is your family in the Black Sea? I am

Escort you home."

Aenarion said gently. When the topic of home was mentioned, these two-meter-five-six-meter-tall men all showed a decadent and depressed look.

"Home? We have no home. All of us here are slaves of the Crimean Khanate, suffering from hard labor under the command of the Mongolian orcs. A few days ago, our masters wanted some jewelry from the Ottomans, so they treated us as goods and exchanged us all to the Ottomans. Thank you for your rescue, but we really have nowhere to go."

A half-giant who looked like a leader spoke tremblingly, his fair skin covered with whip marks from torture.

Aenarion looked at the six hundred-odd people. All of them were men, half of them were young and middle-aged men, and the other half were ignorant children. The former were coolies, and the latter were Janissary reserves - these Ottomans really knew how to pick slaves, but unfortunately, none of them were professionals. All of them were civilians who had not even received the most basic warrior training.

"If you have nowhere to go, do you want to follow me? You can get rid of your slavery, take up arms, and attack those slave owners! Attack the Ottomans who bought you! I will pay you half a silver coin a day. If you pass the hard training and become a first-level professional, your daily salary will be one silver coin, and a second-level professional will get two silver coins a day, and so on. I will pay for all the weapons and food! You can also win extra rewards after winning the battle."

Aenarion simply copied the salary system of the Ottoman Empire. These half-giants who had just escaped from slavery had nowhere to go. Upon hearing the price offered by Aenarion, three hundred young and middle-aged half-giants responded and joined his army.

But the three hundred children had no blood relationship with these young men, and they didn't even know each other. They were not slaves at all. This gave Aenarion a headache. He had no territory to accept and house these children. Even if he conquered Athens, it would take a long time to build an orphanage.

Speaking of children, these children are about 1.8 meters tall, and the older ones are more than 2 meters tall. Not to mention humans, they are even taller than elves.

Although they are adults, these children have very childish faces and their minds are not yet mature. They are child soldiers and the like. Only African warlords can do such a thing.

Not knowing what to do, Aenarion sailed away from the naval battlefield, assigned some zombies to control the galley that was not scrapped, and returned to Constantinople with three hundred and a half giant soldiers and three hundred and a half giant children. He asked the Phoenix Guard if there was an orphanage in Constantinople.

As a result, after hearing that there were 300 homeless half-giant children, the other party became excited and said that the emperor would raise them well, give them a complete education and a happy childhood, and rebuild a Varangian Guard that was completely loyal to the Eastern Roman Empire when they grew up.

Although it sounds no different from the Janissaries of the Ottoman Empire, who cares? It doesn't mean the Ottoman Empire is growing stronger.

After settling the fate of these children, Aenarion went to Galatia again to buy equipment for his first batch of 300 soldiers. In theory, the only thing that could allow an ordinary person to kill a high-level professional was a musket. But now all the firearms on the market were matchlock guns. Even if they were optimized with paper-wrapped bullets, the firing rate was very slow and the accuracy was terrible. Moreover, the structure of the matchlock gun was designed to be open flame, so it could not be densely arrayed, otherwise the flying sparks would likely ignite your teammates' gunpowder bags, and the explosion of the barrel would turn the casualties from one person to a large number of people.

If it is a scattered formation, as long as the enemy succeeds in breaking through, the dense formation will be a dimensionality reduction attack on the scattered soldiers, and can form a local advantage of many against one. A charge of the dense phalanx can defeat the scattered soldiers, and it is enough for your own zombies and ogres to keep their firearms.

Aenarion thought for a moment and decided to just treat these half-giants as simple spearmen. The spear, with its excellent attack range advantage, is the most common weapon on the battlefield and the easiest weapon for ordinary people to get started with, although mastering it is another matter.

A four-meter-long spear that is suitable for the large body of a half-giant as a main weapon costs 10 silver coins; a hand axe as a secondary weapon hung on the waist costs 6 silver coins; a bag of ten javelins, used as long-range firepower, also costs 10 silver coins.

Next is the armor. A piece of leather armor suitable for the large body of a half-giant costs 20 silver coins, and a kite-shaped wooden shield costs 7 silver coins. It costs 53 silver coins to fully arm a half-giant, and half-giants cost silver coins.

Aenarion made a budget and asked his mother for money, but was met with a cold stare.

"Do you look down on the Athenian defenders, or do you look down on my daughter's dowry? Your zombies are sailors, usually active in the sea, and their defense is very high after being transformed by the Abundant Evil. It's okay if they don't wear armor, but you want to attack Athens with 300 light infantry? Give everyone a chain mail."

Anjie quickly changed the budget and added a piece of chain mail to suit the large body of half-giants in the armor column. The chain mail was connected by thousands of iron rings and reached the cuffs and knees to protect the bodies of half-giants. It cost 300 silver coins each. She also added an elf-style pointed helmet, which cost 60 silver coins each.

Now, the cost of arming a soldier has soared from 53 silver coins to 413 silver coins, an increase of eight times! The cost of fully arming is as high as ! The cost of elite armored soldiers and ordinary soldiers is simply two dimensions, but the young drow woman

He paid without blinking an eye.

"How much dowry do you plan to give to Estariel?"

Aenarion was awed by his mother's generosity.

"After deducting my pension, there are 500,000 Grosso silver coins. You bought 18 cannons and these armors, so there are still 300,000 left."

Aenarion nodded, roughly understanding the budget, and went to buy weapons and equipment. These Genoese merchants in Galatia were also quite powerful. With such a large order of more than 300 weapons and armor, they took out all the weapons and 100 large-sized chain mails on the spot, and said that the remaining 200 pieces could be transported from various Genoese colonies within a week, or the blacksmiths could dismantle the chain mails for normal people and re-assemble them into equipment suitable for half-giants.

Afterwards, under the guidance and instruction of his mother, Aenarion learned how to command battles. He bought some eagle feathers that were thirty to forty centimeters long, painted them a conspicuous red to decorate helmets to distinguish between captains and centurions in the army, and bought some conspicuous Roman eagle flags. Soldiers were not zombies and could not be directly controlled by telepathy.

Normally, the smallest combat unit on the battlefield is the century. The commander gives orders directly to the centurions, and then the centurions command the hundreds of people under their command to carry out the orders.

Therefore, there must be conspicuous flags, helmet tassels and other decorations to let the commander know where your centuries and centurions are, and to let the soldiers know under which flag they should unite. Otherwise, when you really go to the battlefield, hundreds or thousands of people will be crowded together, and there will be people everywhere. Let alone command, you can't even tell where your own army is.

During the week of waiting for the armor to arrive, the three hundred half-giants were divided into three centuries. Aenarion selected the six most capable half-giants to become three centurions and three standard-bearers. The centurions' pointed helmets were decorated with red feathers, and the riders held high the scarlet eagle flag to distinguish themselves from ordinary soldiers.

Afterwards, it was normal combat training: raising shields, holding spears, throwing javelins. These half-giant slaves said that the amount of training was much easier than the hard labor they had done before, and they also received silver coins and had enough food to eat, so they trained extremely hard.

By the time the armor arrived, Aenarion already had three hundred half-giant heavy-armored spearmen wearing chain mail, one hundred and forty zombie musketeers, and ten ogre zombie lead-spitters, plus the three hundred half-giant pillagers brought by Valkia, a total of seven hundred people. Even if they encountered a hundred Janissaries, they would be able to fight back with their numerical advantage.

Chapter 133: Aurelia

Aenarion's large-scale military training in the open space of Constantine naturally attracted the attention of Constantine XI. He was very curious about what this guy wanted to do.

Out of curiosity, after finishing a busy day's work, Constantine XI went to the Ulthuan in person, surrounded by a hundred Phoenix Guards, and was shocked: Aenarion had not three hundred ordinary soldiers under his command, but three hundred armored warriors!

On the battlefield, having armor or not is two completely different concepts. Unlike the funny scenes in modern film and television dramas where armor is casually cut off by a sword, the armor brings extremely powerful defense to soldiers. The level of soldiers with or without armor is completely different.

Without armor, if you get poked by a spear or slashed by a scimitar, you will basically lose your combat effectiveness within just a few minutes due to excessive blood loss and be completely doomed on the front line, unless you have psychic powers or magic to save your life like Aenarion.

With armor, many attacks cannot hurt you at all. The originally fatal injuries become less fatal after the impact is offset by the armor, which greatly enhances the soldiers' survivability on the battlefield.

A piece of armor would easily use more than 10 to 20 kilograms of iron, and there were even heavier styles. On the other hand, a sword was only a little over one kilogram. In ancient Zhendan Dynasty, swords were not banned, but anyone who secretly kept a set of armor would lose his head. From the manufacturing cost and the ban, we can know how good the armor was.

"You, what do you want to do with so many heavily armored soldiers?"

Constantine XI asked curiously.

Seeing that His Majesty the Emperor had come in person, Aenarion saluted and greeted him very politely, but he would not tell him the specific location.

"Now all the Venetian islands and territories are flying the red crescent flag of the Ottoman Empire. There are many Ottoman puppet regimes in Athens, Thebes and other places. The Knights Hospitaller are calling on all Christian brothers to seize these lands. I also want to take this opportunity to gain a place of my own."

Constantine XI sighed. He saw Aenarion's great potential the first time they met. Although he didn't know why, he had the blood of the double-headed eagle of Angelos, and even saved his sister from the double pursuit of the Ottomans and Venice. With this skill alone, he was definitely not an ordinary person.

He really wanted to win over the man in front of him, but looking at the desire and ambition flashing in his eyes, he knew that Aenarion would never yield to anyone. Perhaps he could try another way to win him over.

"Well, as long as we fight the Ottomans, I, Constantine XI, will definitely help.

I will give you a hundred-man elven archers to assist you in your expedition and help you garrison this place."

"Thank you for your help, then."

Aenarion could probably guess what Constantine XI was thinking, but at the moment he was indeed short of manpower, so he agreed immediately.

After a while, the aid promised by Constantine XI arrived. One hundred high elf archers wearing green cloaks, carrying scimitars on their waists and holding composite longbows, arrived at the harbor in uniform steps. All of them were first-level rangers: a long-range profession focusing on bows and arrows.

The person in the lead was a heroic high elf. She had a graceful figure, draped in an emerald green cloak with gold trim, two sharp scimitars across her flexible waist, two bags of feather arrows on her back, and a composite longbow in her hand, as slender and tall as she was.

Her proud and confident face was painted with blue battle patterns, and she had a pair of long pointed ears and thousands of golden hair that stretched out from the green hood.

"Nice to meet you, Captain Aenarion. I am Alleria Windrunner, the Ranger General of the Eastern Roman Empire."

The proud elven archer nodded in greeting, and Aenarion looked over. She was a 5th-level ranger, a class that focused on hunting with bows and light weapons.

"Nice to meet you, General Windrunner. We are now ready to set off. Your Majesty will hear the song of victory before July."

Aenarion entertained the other party warmly, and the Ulthuan set sail with 150 zombies, 300 Viking heavy armored spearmen, and 100 elven archers.

Next to him, there were four Viking longships, each with eighty Viking raiders on board.

This huge army of five ships and seven or eight hundred people first went to Rhode Island. They needed some livestock, carriages loaded with purchased food, and cannons.

Livestock are extremely scarce in Greece due to its geographical structure of seven mountains, two rivers and one piece of farmland. The Greeks keep the available livestock for themselves and rarely sell them. The Ottomans own most of Asia Minor and have no shortage of livestock, but they are being wanted quite severely, so it is better for them not to go there for the time being and stay out of the spotlight. After much thought, Rhodes is the only island with a large number of livestock.

After some shopping, Aenarion purchased 10 black donkeys and mules from Rhodes at the price of 40 silver coins per animal. Every two donkeys pulled a wooden cart carrying food and supplies.

Afterwards, he purchased 200 heavy pack horses at the price of 24 silver coins each. Similarly, two horses pulled one wooden cart, but these twelve carts were equipped with twelve-pound stone-throwing cannons weighing 290 kilograms. This business he did in the Black Sea not only gained him soldiers, but also robbed cannons from the Janissary ship. The side gun ports of Ossuan were already full, so he simply pulled them all ashore and opened fire.

After obtaining enough wooden carts and livestock, Aenarion's fleet turned around and headed for Evia, which was only separated from the Attica Peninsula by a strait, and met the demon hunter Allari again.

After hearing about Aenarion's plan to capture Athens, Alleri generously lent him a hundred high elf archers, but they were all hunters, civilians, without professional levels, and they held ordinary hunting bows. They were not as elite as the team of archers supporting Constantinople.

At this moment, the number of soldiers under Aenarion's command was close to a thousand.

Athens was originally a member of the classic Eastern Roman centralized system, but with the invasion of the Crusaders, it was controlled by the Crusaders from Western Europe. On this territory, which was only the size of a county, they forcibly established the Principality of Athens, completely overturned the Roman provincial system, and used the Western European knight fiefdom system to control this land.

According to intelligence, the current Grand Duke of Athens is Francisco, a human being who is a crusader from Spain. He has given out approximately fifty knights in the entire area controlled by Athens.

The problem now is how to lure Francisco, who is hiding in Athens, out and kill him.

Talking about this, Aenarion was no longer sleepy. He was not a genius strategist or war commander, nor was he a general who had fought bravely on the battlefield and won many battles.

However, I was a university student majoring in history in my previous life, so I have some knowledge of the history of ancient and modern times, both Chinese and foreign, and the strategies and tactics of various generals.

"We will only send one or two hundred people to attack the port of Marathon, creating the illusion that a small group of pirates and robbers are attacking here, and deliberately let a few people escape and let them go back to report the news. Then, the Grand Duke of Athens, Francisco, will definitely lead his troops out of the walls of Athens, bringing soldiers he thinks are enough to deal with one or two hundred pirates, to support Marathon, and collide with our army of nearly a thousand people and annihilate them in one fell swoop."

Aenarion proposed a plan to attack Wei and save Zhao.

Angel White narrowed her eyes, not understanding this son-in-law. He was a complete novice in commanding troops. She had helped him establish flags, feathers, military organization and training. But why did he come up with such terrifying and exquisite techniques when talking about tactics? Even Angelos, who had read all the books in the family collection, could not do better than this.

What she didn't know was that the books in the Angelos family's collection only covered the history of the Mediterranean coast for more than two thousand years starting from the ancient Greek era, while what Aenarion had read covered the history of the kings, princes and generals of the entire earth for more than five thousand years. Although he had no practical experience, the theoretical knowledge was on a different level.

Chapter 134: Besiege Wei to Save Zhao

1450

June 6, Marathon.

Aenarion, who was familiar with history, was not arrogant, nor did he have any unrealistic and exciting fantasies about war. Judging from history, such people basically died miserably, such as Zhao Kuo.