Imperial Crown

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"Joshua, I think you owe me an explanation."

Xue Yan sat behind the table, staring at the lizard man and said slowly.

He is 44 years old. His many years as a horse thief did not make him look particularly old, but it only left him with a bronzed skin.

There is a red eye patch on his head, covering his right eye; while his left eye is a very common brown.

Seeing Joshua's silence, Meng Ngar showed a hint of dissatisfaction in his eyes.

He pressed his right thumb across his plump lips:

"Joshua, how can we cooperate if you continue like this?"

Joshua is a lizard man who is now over 110 years old.

Based on the lizard man's lifespan of 200 years, Joshua has just reached middle age.

Like its kind, its body was covered with green scales, and a thick tail pierced through the armor and swayed behind it.

The tricorn hat he wears on his head symbolizes his status as a "pirate general".

The most eye-catching thing is the center of his eyebrows. Among the green scales, there is a cluster of white scales.

Black vertical pupils fell on Menggar's face, and his slender black tongue hissed:

"What do you want me to explain?"

"Why did today's siege still fail in vain?" Menggar whispered:

"We already agreed when formulating the tactics yesterday that today we want your Lizardman Legion to be the main force and transport the siege equipment there!"

Joshua glanced at Mongar:

"But the premise is that your horse thief must firmly attract the other party's attention to me."

"What's the result?"

"You dispatched 10,000 people. In a whole day, you only erected 14 pontoon bridges. They were built faster than others could demolish them. In this case, if you want my people to take over, are you asking for help? Did they freeze to death in the river for nothing?”

Meng Ngar looked a little ugly when he heard this, because what Joshua said was all the truth.

There was no other way, after all, Monngar's men were all horse thieves, and it was engraved in their bones to bully the weak and fear the strong.

If he asked the horse thieves to burn, kill, and plunder, the horse thieves would definitely listen; but if he asked them to abide by military disciplines and follow orders and prohibitions, their swords would not necessarily face which way.

Thinking of this, Menggal's attitude softened:

"I know it's my fault, so let's do this. Tomorrow I will mobilize more of those untouchables who took over and try to build more floating bridges..."

"You humans are really cold-blooded in how you treat your compatriots." Joshua snorted coldly:

"But what you want to do is up to you."

"Anyway, I will judge the situation myself. If it is not safe enough, my Holy Blood Legion will not be dispatched again."

Meng Engal's face was a little gloomy: "Joshua, don't go too far!"

"Am I going too far?" Joshua's cold eyes revealed an angry sneer: "I have restrained myself enough."

"Have you forgotten what happened when we invaded Eagle Town?"

Menggar was suffocated to silence again.

Trust doesn't break down in a day.

On the day they invaded Eagle Town, the "Holy Blood Legion" composed of lizardmen finally captured the three-layer defense line on the outside. His horse thieves could not sit still and rushed into Eagle Town regardless of anything.

In the process, many lizardmen were impacted, and he also suffered a lot of losses.

Afterwards, rough statistics showed that more than 70 lizard men died at the hands of the horse thieves that day, and the number of vicious horse thieves who died at the hands of the lizard men was no less than several hundred.

What makes Menggar even more worried is that the people in Eagle Town evacuated too quickly, leaving not many valuable things at all. If they were divided up by his subordinates, not much would be left, and only a few would be left in his hands. One hundred gold coins were not enough to compensate Joshua.

He even posted a lot of money himself!

"But this is not the way to go." Mongar said:

"Don't forget the real purpose of our visit this time."

"If we can't take Eagle City, all the sacrifices we made before will really be wasted!"

Joshua took a deep breath, stood up and walked out:

"I know."

"But that goal is not worth the infinite sacrifices of my people to achieve."

“As I said before, let your people play their role!

Otherwise, I would rather withdraw to Slaver's Bay! "

Watching Joshua's tail dragging long traces on the ground, and waiting for Joshua to leave the room, Meng'ar pounded the table hard, with murderous intent bursting out of his eyes:

"Damn reptile!"

Joshua returned to his camp.

Entering the room, a rather old-looking lizard man with grayish scales walked up, took the three-cornered hat from Joshua, and hung it on the shelf next to him.

"You seem unhappy?" the old lizard man asked.

"Uncle Rousseau, it has been almost half a month since we arrived at Eagle Territory today." Joshua's tail rested weakly on the ground:

"But not only was there no progress at all, but 319 of our tribesmen were killed or injured. All of this was due to Mongar's incompetence. How could I be happy?"

"Now, every night, those dead tribesmen come to my dream. They do nothing but look at me quietly."

Rousseau stretched out his right hand, whose scales had begun to peel off, and held Joshua's arm tightly:

"My child, that is because they are eagerly looking forward to you being able to lead the remaining clan members to complete their unfinished business."

The reason why Mongar attacked the Eagle Territory and the pirate Joshua appeared in the inland was similar.

Raven's offensive in Eivor made the Insa Empire feel threatened.

Their proposal to send troops to help Eivor was also rejected by the Feyton city-states.

So, Insa found Mongar and contacted Joshua.

They hoped that they could capture the Eagle City to distract Raven and force him to withdraw from the Principality of Eivor.

If the goal can be achieved, Mongar can clean up his identity and become a noble of the Insa Empire.

And Joshua will also get a piece of his own territory in Insa.

For Joshua, the title of nobility is not important. What he wants is a piece of land where his people can reproduce freely.

Although the lizardmen are stronger than the human race, they have been enslaved and discriminated at the bottom of the Slave Bay because their historical heritage is basically cut off and reproduction is relatively difficult.

It was not until Joshua gained extraordinary power, established his own pirate force, and gradually expanded that the lizards had a preliminary place to stay.

But this is not a long-term solution.

The process for lizards to awaken to become extraordinary is much more complicated than that of humans, and the divine potion has no effect on them at all.

Even Joshua himself was confused about how he awakened his extraordinary power - he suddenly gained power after a dream.

That was an awakening from blood.

This is not stable, at least Joshua's own three children have not awakened successfully.

Once Joshua dies one day, the tribe will surely fall apart under external pressure.

Therefore, Joshua will accept Insa's conditions - that will allow his people to leave the dangerous environment of Slave Bay and go to an independent paradise to reproduce safely.

"I've been thinking recently whether my decision this time was wrong." Joshua sighed, "If I fail, how can I face the tribesmen who have high expectations for me? Their families are still waiting for them to return."

"Don't think too much." Rousseau patted the back of Joshua's hand: "What you need now is a good sleep."

"Believe in yourself."

"After all, you have never made a wrong decision in the past hundred years!"

Joshua nodded, took off his armor, and went back to bed to lie down.

Rousseau extinguished the brazier in the tent and left the tent wrapped in a blanket.

But Joshua did not fall asleep.

He sat up, his eyes emitting a cold green light in the dark night.

After thinking for a long time, he got up from the bed, took out a piece of paper and pen, wrote a letter, checked and reviewed it carefully, took off a white scale on his forehead and put it inside, and then stuffed the letter under his pillow.

...

This book has been updated recently on ##六@@九@@书@@吧!! Update!

On the same night, a meeting was also held in Eagle City.

In addition to Nancy and Denise, Old Gordon, Judra, Broca, Wesassin, Lady Doreen, and other Snow Maple County nobles including Seleva were all present.

Judra also sat at the far end of the long table.

Fiona was responsible for recording the meeting.

But she was so idle that she kept turning the pen, and there were only two lines of text on the parchment in front of her.

The atmosphere was so depressing that it was like a funeral.

Nancy only needed to think about the strategy to repel the enemy, but these nobles had to think about more.

A considerable number of nobles, led by Israel Wa, hoped that Nancy would contact Raven as soon as possible after resisting the attack of the horse thieves, so that Raven could lead the army back to help.

Otherwise, once the city was broken, they would all be buried with it.

But Nancy insisted on her own opinion and rejected all requests for help from Raven.

Nobles like Seleva had other ideas, such as secretly sending people out of the city or making a big fuss about the situation through the Sky Eagle Platform.

But there were horned eagles hovering and patrolling over Eagle City all the time, and people couldn't get out at all.

And the Sky Eagle Platform was completely controlled by the Griffith family, and Nancy had the final say on what content could be put on it.

This made Seleva and others very desperate - Nancy and Raven maintained communication, and as long as Nancy and others insisted that Eagle City was safe and sound, Raven would not listen to the rumors circulating in the streets.

And if they really wanted to tear their faces with Nancy, they didn't have the courage.

Not to mention, the situation hadn't reached that critical moment.

Regardless, Nancy herself was a level 3 magician, and they might not be able to beat her.

Even if they really succeeded, when Raven turned around and came back, it would not only be the horse thieves who would be destroyed - Raven dared to fight even Eivor, could he spare them?

Therefore, every time Nancy held a meeting, she wanted them to come up with ideas and formulate a plan to repel the enemy, the atmosphere would become so cold.

"Ah..."

Nancy sighed in her heart.

Just when she thought that today's meeting would end in vain, someone came in to report:

"Mrs. Nancy, my lords, Viscount John is leading his troops to support us!"

Nancy's eyes lit up: "Please invite Viscount John in!"

Soon, Viscount John came to the meeting room.

This old knight had come all the way, and there was even a layer of frost on his armor, which slowly melted when he arrived in Eagle City, leaving circles of water stains as he walked.

"Sorry, Viscount John." Nancy stood up and performed a skirt-lifting ceremony in a serious manner:

"You have just arrived. I really shouldn't invite you over so hastily, but..."

Viscount John exhaled: "Ms. Nancy, you don't have to be so polite."

"The reason why I came here is to relieve the predicament of Eagle City. I even thought that I came too late. I didn't come as soon as I got the news. How could I refuse a meeting?"

"What's going on now?"

Nancy was relieved to get to the point this time.

Viscount John was well-known and a veteran general. He participated in the "Frontier Campaign" when he was young.

There was no one with more military experience than him.

When the nobles, especially Sereva and others, saw the arrival of Viscount John, they suddenly became angry and began to complain.

Both inside and outside the words, there is an implication that Nancy does not understand military affairs but is giving random orders.

They all wanted Viscount John to take the lead in making the proposal and tell Raven the seriousness of the matter.

"Quiet!" Nancy frowned: "How can Viscount John hear clearly with such a busy chatter?"

After this period of time, Nancy also accumulated some dignity. As soon as these words came out, everyone immediately became quiet.

"Hey, shut up, just shut up." Seleva thought to himself: "Anyway, if John wasn't a fool, he would definitely agree with us!"

Next, under the auspices of Nancy, messages were placed in front of Viscount John.

This includes, but is not limited to, the opponent's troop configuration, camp situation, the battle situation and results during this period, etc.

After reading and digesting these messages one by one, Viscount John fell into deep thought while looking at the map in Nancy's expectant eyes.

First, he took action and adjusted a few small flags with incorrect information. Viscount John pointed at the map and asked, "Is this the opponent's grain collection point?"

"Now that you have found the place to store grain, and you have quite a few hippogryph cavalry, why don't you just throw tinder from the air and burn it directly?"

Nancy immediately said: "We have also considered this, but although the other party's food and grass are densely stocked, they are covered with large pieces of stone cloth to prevent fire, and there are archers guarding them."

"Throwing objects from high altitude has no effect, and if you want to get close and set fire, you can't break through the opponent's long-range defense."

Stone cloth, also called asbestos and asbestos, is indeed a commonly used fire prevention measure in the military.

Viscount John nodded, his eyes wandered on the map for a while, then walked to the window and looked at the opponent's camp in the distance:

"I read the previous battle reports. It seems that there is no harmony between the horse thieves and the pirates?"

Nancy walked to John: "Yes, on the first day, when they invaded Eagle Town, a small-scale internal strife broke out."

"After that, the cooperation between the two sides was also very unfamiliar. Sometimes, they would even intentionally beggar their neighbors and hold each other back. Otherwise, it would not be so easy to defend the city."

Viscount John did not doubt this, because it could be seen from how the other party set up camp.

Although the camps of both sides are far apart, they share the same food storage point. It is obvious that they do not trust each other and are not confident that the food is in the hands of the other party.

And this is exactly the gap worth taking advantage of.

…