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Wang didn't laugh, but went straight to the point: "Yesterday in the office of Tang of the Wanderer Guild, we were attacked by the Wanderer Guild and Erwin. Two of the Duke's men died. I brought back their bodies and relics. Should I take them out here?"
The Duke took a deep breath and shook his head, saying, "Leave it to Merlin later. He will take good care of the aftermath."
Wang nodded, walked straight to the large sand table in the command room, and carefully observed the war chess on it.
"Is this the emperor's main force?" He pointed to a few soldier chess pieces near the border.
"Yes, it's mainly conscripts. The emperor's own guards are also there, and there are mercenaries. The total number is more than we expected, around 17,000," Wayne Langdon explained as the military commander.
Wang: "Then are those the cavalry that attacked yesterday?"
"Yes. Five thousand in all, of whom three thousand are light cavalry, skilled in volleys, and two thousand are mounted infantry."
Wang stroked his chin and said, "Am I to understand that the emperor only has these 22,000 men? What about the enemies who came from underground yesterday?"
"As of this morning, we have recovered a total of 1,000 armored corpses and captured about 1,500 people." Wayne looked embarrassed. "Because we also suffered a lot of casualties, we only provided these people with herbs and bandages. As of this morning, many people have developed fever. The nuns in the monastery are taking care of them."
Wang: "So about a thousand people escaped? All of them escaped from underground?"
Bruce took over his brother's words and replied, "We are conducting a city-wide search so that everyone can recognize each other's unfamiliar faces. As for the part about escaping underground, you should know better than us how dangerous it is underground."
The king snapped his fingers. "So the emperor's elite standing army was wiped out? How many spellcasters were killed in the enemy army?"
Wayne took over the conversation again: "The heavy armored soldiers who attacked the city yesterday mainly committed massacres and robberies. No matter whether they are paladins or priests of good gods, they will not participate in such behavior.
"The River Valley Army does have priests and paladins. We have seized a lot of holy emblems, but because the battlefield was too chaotic last night, we were unable to identify the bodies of the divine spellcasters who died in the battle. We did kill 24 arcane spellcasters, most of whom were second- and third-ring spellcasters."
Arcane spellcasters generally do not wear armor, but robes, and are generally thin and relatively easy to identify.
Wayne paused, and the Duke continued, "We have confirmed the identity of the highest-ranking arcane spellcaster killed yesterday. He is Morgan, the court wizard of the Valley Territory."
Wang interrupted Wayne and said, "The Archmage is dead? The druid said that she seriously injured the Archmage. If there is a priest, he should be able to be saved."
Wayne nodded: "Yes, according to the testimony of the captives, the archmage was indeed only seriously injured, but after the priests used the healing spell, he immediately had a fever. He might have been infected with some disease. The priests were preparing for a short decisive battle and were not prepared to remove the disease.
"Before they could move the Archmage to the ship to use medicine for treatment, the commander of the River Valley Army was killed, and the entire army was in chaos, and the formation collapsed. In the chaos, the Archmage was trampled to death.
"Many captives can prove that the druid who killed the enemy commander and the archmage was the same one, and she was carrying a huge ham. We believe it was the werewolf druid who returned with you.
"So she and you shared the credit last night."
The king frowned and said, "Are you going to reward people based on their merits now? It's not appropriate, is it? The emperor still has more than 20,000 people to eliminate."
Bruce: "The Emperor has already lost. Yesterday's attack was when he had the best chance, but we held on. And because we fought on our own soil, the priests brought most of the wounded back from the brink of death.
"Although the emperor still has an advantage in terms of military strength, the quality has greatly declined. Most of his knights and retainers died in the raid last night. Now he can't do anything to Landon City with his limited military strength. Once our army gathers, the emperor will be finished.
"Didn't you see the carrier pigeon that took off towards the rising sun this morning? Once the carrier pigeon reaches our allies, they will raise an army. These people will never come to rescue you when you are in danger, but when you show that you are winning, they will come quickly."
Wang was about to speak when suddenly his left eyelid began to twitch.
"Well," he said, "maybe this crisis is really over."
Bruce came to the sand table, took the teaching stick from his brother, tapped the Landon City on the sand table and said, "The emperor may still want to give it a try. Although his archmage is dead, and the archmage of the Valley Territory who was persuaded with great difficulty is also dead, he should have some mage apprentices around him.
"His priests and paladins did not participate in the sneak attack last night, so their strength should be relatively intact. If the priests are equipped with fireball scrolls, they can also play a role in the siege. Even the poor Styrian can afford to equip themselves with fireball scrolls at 400 gold coins each."
King: "Yesterday, Misha Sara reported that the enemy was equipped with crossbows made by dwarves. It seems that the territory of Styria is not as poor as you think."
Bruce: "According to the latest intelligence, His Majesty may have reduced the number of vassal states in his own territory. He ignored the opposition of the Noble Council and adopted the equal division of inheritance. The territories of the barons became smaller and smaller, and then they were defeated one by one by the emperor. The territory he directly governs now is larger than imagined.
"That's why he was able to afford the huge expenses of the Southwest War. But now, it's all over. If he can't defeat us and rob us of our treasures, he will go bankrupt. If he mobilizes troops for a long time during the spring plowing season, the harvest will be poor in the fall, and he will have no money to provide relief to the victims.
"So he must, must burn his boats and go all out."
Wayne added: "Before our allies' troops arrive."
Wang: "So, this means that the decisive battle will take place in the next two days?"
Wayne: "Judging from the speed of the enemy's movement, we will be able to see the enemy on the city wall tomorrow night. I guess the emperor will let Amur's light cavalry harass our troops gathering towards Landon County. The baron's army is far away, but they are all in armor.
"Conscripts have little to no way to deal with this kind of harassment. They must be prepared to be dispersed."
The king crossed his arms and held his chin. "It's not very effective to transform into a dragon and attack these light cavalry. If they scatter, the dragon's breath will not be able to spray many people."
"About this point." The archmage of Landon Territory raised his old hand, "Can I take a look at the content about dragon form in your Infinite Book? I only want to read the dragon form in order to deal with the current situation!"
Wang: "Of course, I can, but even a seven-ring dragon shape has seven pages. I need to turn the pages myself to show you. Once my hands leave the book, the text on the page will disappear immediately and the book will close.
"Besides, you are also a wizard. To know Transfiguration Magic, besides knowing the knowledge related to the spell, you also need to be familiar with the object to be transformed. Do you have any knowledge related to dragons?"
The Archmage closed his eyes and sighed, "No. But after this matter is completed, could you please transcribe the dragon shape into a scroll for me?"
Wang: "I can't make a seven-ring scroll myself. I'm only a three-ring spellcaster.
“But I can slowly turn the pages for you so that you can copy it into your own spellbook.
"But knowledge itself has value. What are you going to exchange for it? The knowledge you have collected over the years is meaningless to me. I can't use the precious spellcasting materials for the time being. As for the gold coins, I think when everything is over, the Duke will reward me with a lot. What price can you offer in exchange?"
The archmage looked troubled.
The Duke said, "I paid for him, using the resurrection scroll that my father was unable to use."
The king nodded and said, "Deal. That's great. Erwin's body is in my dimensional bag. We can revive him after getting the scroll and then torture him. But I don't think he will tell me anything, because the mastermind may have used some kind of forbidden contract to prevent him from telling. But it's always good to give it a try!"
Duke: "Wait a minute! You mean, this mastermind, Erwin, isn't the instigator of everything?"
The king was a little surprised. He remembered that he had reported this matter yesterday. But he immediately understood that the Duke was doing this for others to see. This new Duke seemed to be acting all the time.
So he nodded: "Yes. So our journey will continue."
Bruce shrugged. "Well, once the scroll is in your hands, you are free to use it however you want. But all this has to wait until the war is over. After all, I still need this resurrection scroll as a backup."
Wang: “Reasonable.”
Chapter 59 Unintentional Intention
As the Duke finished speaking, the door of the headquarters opened.
Xiaobai came in wearing a little white dress.
Apparently when Elizabeth was as tall as she was she didn't have such obvious secondary sexual characteristics, so the dress actually looked very fitted.
She glanced at the lords in the room: "Sure enough, there is no meat here, but fortunately there is fruit given by the good mother-in-law."
After saying that, she took out the fruit and threw it into her mouth.
Everyone fell silent when they saw her action.
The Duke coughed, then raised his voice and said, "Forest people, tell me your name."
Wang: "Her name is Xiaobai."
Elizabeth reached out and pulled the wizard's sleeve: "We should use formal names here. Nicknames are not good."
Xiao Bai: "What Dacongming said over there is right. I will call myself Xiao Bai. My real name is too long and too troublesome to call."
Wang explained dutifully, "The werewolves' names are longer than those of the northern people, the Solaceans, so even they themselves tend to use abbreviated names."
As the king explained, everyone looked at Merlin, the old butler of Langdon, who was in the room. He and his wife were from Solace.
Bruce nodded: "Okay, in that case we will respect the customs of werewolves. So, Xiaobai, you killed the Grand Mage Morgan of the Valley Territory last night..."
Xiaobai interrupted while twiddling his thumbs, "I didn't kill him. He has stone skin on his body. I think I hurt him so badly that he can't cast spells. Healing should be able to save him."
Wang: "The Archmage is an old man. In the current Landon Territory, healing magic has slight side effects. Young people and even middle-aged people are basically fine, but the scabs on the wounds will be more obvious. But the elderly can't stand it, and they need to use disease removal."
Xiaobai: "I know, you told me. Among all the priests, not one is prepared to remove disease?"
Bruce interrupted the conversation: "That seems to be the case. After all, the River Valley Army came here last night for a short-term decisive battle, so they prepared team-enhancing magic. If it was for a long-term decisive battle, they would probably prepare to remove diseases to deal with diseases such as malaria.
"You killed the commander of the Valley Army last night..."
Xiaobai: "You mean the one who kicked my ham?"
The scene became very awkward again.
Bruce was indeed the successor appointed by the old fox. He said in a very serious tone, "Yes, it was the one who kicked your ham. You killed him and made great contributions to our rapid victory over the River Valley Army. So I decided to grant you the title of baron."
Xiao Bai looked at Wang in confusion: "What is a Baron?"
King: "You will have a territory in the future, and most of the food in the territory will belong to you."
Xiaobai: "You humans are so troublesome. You need the chief to give you your territory. Among us werewolves, whoever is stronger gets the land."
At this time, the old butler Merlin came out with the title deed of the territory, the proof of the lord's power and other documents.
So Bruce walked up to Xiaobai, took a large medal tied to a ribbon from the butler, and then slung the ribbon from the wolf girl's right shoulder to her left lower abdomen.
Many of the knights looked at this scene with envy. Many of them inherited their titles from their ancestors. After all, Landon County had not fought a war for sixty years, and without a war, there would be no knighthood for military merit.
Many lords are looking forward to adding some more fiefdoms to themselves this time.
Now the fief was given to a werewolf druid who came from nowhere.
When Bruce turned his head to take the deed, Xiaobai picked up the medal in confusion and took a bite of it.
The werewolf's sharp teeth immediately left clear scratches on the medal's surface.
Bruce was so shocked that his hand holding the deed stopped immediately.
Xiaobai spat out the medal, spit a few times, turned around and asked Wang: "Smart, what's the use of this? There's no magic smell on it!"
Wang: "It's just a piece of iron. It has no value except for its symbolic meaning. It's not even gold."
Elizabeth hastened to correct him: "It has gold and silver, but not much."
Wang immediately changed his words: "Xiao Bai, you can sell it for money."
Elizabeth and Bruce shouted together, "Don't!"
Wang: "My Lord Duke, I know you are holding an award ceremony to boost morale. After all, the emperor still has more than 20,000 people. Even though the priest was very good at rescuing many people last night, the losses should not be small.
"I estimate that there are less than a thousand professional soldiers in the city. If you include the mercenaries of the Chamber of Commerce, there are only about two thousand elite soldiers. The rest are city militia.
“You need to keep morale high.”
Bruce was shocked: "You are right. Although I just said confidently that the emperor is doomed to fail, our crisis is not over yet."
Wang: "It's over. My left eyelid twitched. Last night was probably the biggest test."
The knights and lords in the command room looked at each other and talked a lot.
Bruce looked at Wang suspiciously: "What... do you mean? Why is it okay when my left eyelid twitches?"
Wang: "The twitching of the left eyelid is a good sign."