Realm of Power

Ilrou, an important town in eastern Normandy

The Irlu Fortress stands among the lofty mountains. The city walls stretch for several miles, forming a ring-like structure. Almost all the arrow towers and the three inner rings of the fortress are made of granite weighing several tons. Between the stone gaps, the Normans used an unknown white mixture to firmly bond the stones. At the same time, as the eastern barrier of Normandy, the main purpose of the original construction of Fortress Ilrou was to target the principal enemy of Romana in the northeast.

To this end, the Normans spent a lot of manpower and material resources, and almost all the young and middle-aged labor force in the Ilrou area was drained. It took a full six years to build this impregnable fortress among the steep mountains. The entire fortress is like a cutworm lying in a mountain canyon. Staring with fierce eyes, it stared down at the enemy in front of it, as if if anyone dared to offend it, it would immediately respond with the most ferocious fangs. In fact, this is indeed the case. In the past fifty years, Romana In the principality's war against Normandy, it was defeated several times at the Fortress of Ilrou and returned in embarrassment.

"It is really a strong fortress. No wonder the troops of the Principality of Normandy dare to speak arrogantly and look down on the northwest region."

Statunko put down the telescope in his hand and stared ahead with bright eyes, admiring the majestic fortress in front of him. With all the Normandy conquered, Fortress Ilrou has become the last line of life and death for the Normans.

After receiving a handwritten order from Fatty, Statunko held an emergency meeting, gave up the plan to continue advancing, and instead led the 15,000-strong Southern Army to turn sharply towards the direction of Illru, to fight with those who were pursuing the remnants of the Nord army. The 2nd Cavalry Banner Regiment met at the foot of Ilrou Fortress,

"Sir, has your Majesty filtered it?" A banner commander of the Southern Army, beside Statunko, muttered with some dissatisfaction, "Even if the remnants of the Normandy army are here. But this fortress is just a border barrier after all. It will not have any impact on the inland operations, but His Majesty Falcon asked us to give up our plan to continue marching and turn to Illru. My subordinates can't figure it out."

"If you can't figure it out, keep thinking, but you must carry out His Majesty's orders."

Statunko withdrew his gaze from a distance, and gave a heavy grunt to his rebellious subordinates, saying, "Although His Majesty did not say it clearly in the letter, I can feel that Your Majesty must have noticed something. Victory." Brilliance can easily cover up potential dangers. Don’t you think the entire Normandy area is too quiet? This is not a normal reaction.”

"Too quiet? Sir, what do you mean by this?" The commander of the Southern Army Flag Regiment was stunned for a moment, his face full of confusion.

"What would you do if an unknown person suddenly came out one morning and beat your neighbor severely in front of you?" Statunko stared at the outline of the fortress in the distance. , smiled at the corner of his mouth

"Of course I'm helping my neighbor," the Confederate Army Flag Officer said without hesitation, "otherwise what if he beats my neighbor and then me?"

"Yeah, that's it" Statunko's voice paused. He said, "We attacked the Normans, but there was no movement from several other critical countries. Don't you think it's abnormal?"

"Your Majesty is saying that several other countries are waiting for the opportunity to eat us and the Normans." The leader of the Southern Army Flag suddenly realized

Statunko raised his riding whip with a solemn expression, pointed to the Ilrou Fortress in the distance and said, "The terrain of Normandy is surrounded by the sea on three sides and is connected to the mainland on one side, and the center line of this side is Ilrou in front of us. In To the northwest of Illu is Dunkirk and to the southwest is Rome Na, the flank is Biond County City. By taking down Illu, we can at least ensure that one of the backs is safe. Just like fighting with others, when we are alone, the less exposed the better. Good, this way we can avoid falling into the crisis of fighting on several fronts."

The battle for Illu Fortress began in the early morning of February 27th.

The thunder god soldiers of the Southern Army Group pushed six specially-made siege guns onto the top of the slope opposite the fortress.

On both sides of the specially-made siege guns, there were more than seventy in total. The direct-fire thunder gods disassembled from the naval battleships became the last swan song of Illu Fortress.

"Debug angle, turn left 6 degrees"

More than ten minutes later, all the Thors completed their aiming corrections. The black muzzles were raised high, with a cold killing intent. Everyone's eyes immediately aimed at Illu's city wall expectantly.

"Let's begin," Statunko ordered with a calm face. It was not the first time for the Falcon Army to attack the city with the Thunder God, but this time the use of the rare siege Thunder God made many people feel... Very novel,

"Rumble" With the sound of the first test siege cannon, the ground was trembling slightly. As the huge siege cannon roared in an instant, the shells drew out of the barrel with a harsh whistling sound, flying in the air. Drawing a white arc line, it hit the first outer wall of Ierlu Fortress heavily.

A violent explosion sounded like thunder from the sky. Unfortunately, due to the barrier of the city wall, no one at the site could see the impact point of the shell. Nor could they see the power of the shell explosion. They could only wait anxiously at the observation post. After a while, the observation post came back with information. The shells landed on the inner wall of the fortress, and the rubble flew up like raindrops, forming a destructive circle about a hundred meters in diameter.

"Huh!" The shock wave caused by the cannonball caused the Normans to become confused on the spot. Many people were lying down. Some were hit by broken pieces, while others were frightened and sat on the ground. Their faces were pale in the firelight. His eyes were full of fear,

"Mom, what is this?"

The defenders of Ierlu, who had never seen the Thunder God, were in confusion and ran around.

"Quickly, take the Duke to a safe place." Kavibod, who was still wearing gauze, was forcibly taken out of his command post by a group of guards. His command post was located at the first city wall in front.

"Asshole, what are you going to do? I won't leave even if I die." Kavibode yelled angrily. After the failure of the Battle of Hetan and the fall of Du, this northwest hero no longer had any extravagant hopes. He is now He just wants to have a good fight with the Falcon Army. He wants the Falcon Army to know that not all Normans are cowards.

"Rumble" The huge explosion sounded again, but this time it was as dense as lightning and thunder in a heavy rain. After getting confirmation that it had hit the intended target, countless firelights spewed out at the top of the mountain opposite the fortress at the same time. The earth shook and the mountains shook. The firelights smashed over like meteors. The firelights shined again, just like inside the Irlu Fortress. lit up the lights

Rumble...

The shells landed on the slope of the inner city of the fortress, bursting out with dazzling flames. The covered area was immediately completely covered by gunpowder and black smoke. The power of the siege cannon made everyone feel a bit staggering. Many houses in the fortress were large. Some of them are piled with stones and are very strong. However, in front of the siege cannon ground, these solid stone houses are Just like the toy blocks of a dutiful son, they were shattered one after another. As if a huge ball of light was rising in Illu, the stone house was uprooted and flew into the air. Then it was smashed down hard, causing damage below. A large area was in a mess. Screams and screams came one after another. When the smoke cleared, the area was in a mess.

"Keep shooting and knock them out"

Among these people, only Statunko's face did not change at all. His ruthless orders caused the walls of Illru to be shattered under the bombardment of large-caliber siege guns. The city walls collapsed piece by piece, and smoke billowed throughout the fortress. The sound of collapse is continuous,

The large trebuchets on the city wall were blown to pieces before they could fire. The heavy trebuchets flew all over the sky in the explosion and rolled forward along the ground inside the city, injuring many Normans. Soldier, the first city wall is very unsatisfactory and has cracks.

"Come here. What are you still doing? Take the Duke away quickly." There were fires shooting up everywhere, and scattered gravel hit many people on their bodies and faces. Every second, it feels like I'm on the ground

Suffering in prison, one of Kavibod's guards became red-eyed and punched Kavibod in the stomach, who was still clamoring to hold on.

"I'm determined not to..." Cavibode curled his lips and became silent on the spot because of the pain. The guards quickly took him from his original place to the safer second city wall.

Boom, boom, boom... Countless light spots fell unchecked. The Norman soldiers, who had nowhere to hide in the sea of ​​rocks and fire, kept jumping into the moat between the city walls. These ditches became a way for the Normans to avoid artillery fire. Best place to go. But often if you are not careful, a siege shell will fall on the nearby wall, and the collapsed wall will cover the ditch water, and all the people inside will be buried alive or crushed to death.

This offensive lasted for two days, with fierce shelling every morning. In the afternoon, the Falcon Army's infantry crossbowmen would approach the wall and shoot to death the defenders on the fortress with their crossbows. For two whole days, The shelling completely shattered the resistance of the Normans. No one was willing to accept the baptism of such artillery fire. Many Norman soldiers who were not afraid of death fell into a state of hysteria during the continuous bombing, and even killed their companions in a state of confusion. As a result, he was eventually killed. The bombardment caused serious chaos within the Normandy soldiers. Sometimes, in order to seize a trench that could avoid the bombardment, several squadrons would often fight in a group, and then several thunder bombs would arrive unexpectedly with the roar of death, and pieces of corpses would float Between the river ditches inside the fortress,

On the morning of the third day,

Only then did Statunko let the heavy infantry of the Southern Army officially launch the attack. The black military formation rushed towards the collapsed city wall of Ilru like a tide. Before the heavy infantry could rush to the side, the defenders on top attacked by themselves. It collapsed first. The morale of the Normandy army has been seriously low. Most people have serious tinnitus problems in their ears. It seems that the sound of artillery is still going on. Some people even find it difficult to stand. After several days of continuous bombardment, , created unprecedented fear for the Normans,

"retreat"

The Norman army barely had the courage to make contact.

The morning sun slowly penetrated the clouds, illuminating the tall ruins of Irlu Fortress with golden rays of light.

The earth is bathed in the vibrant sunshine of the morning sun. The wild grass stretches its body comfortably in the morning breeze. Under the sunshine, the unknown wild flowers greedily absorb the sunshine, air and moisture, allowing themselves to grow taller and more beautiful. Be strong, be able to see higher and farther, and stay in this world longer,

The black smoke rising in the distance looked very abrupt and out of place in the glow. The cold wind blew through the withered and yellow shrubs next to the fortress. The sound of the dead branches that were charred black in the thick smoke was mostly gone. Leaves, some even only half of the bare wood piles. The upper half has long gone to who knows where?

The front edge of the fortress was littered with scattered stones and rubble, as well as broken weapons and armor. It was a mess. Mutilated corpses are sometimes hidden among the rubble. A white winter snow covered this place last night. Many corpses were buried in the white snow.

The horse's hoof stepped on a pale white hand that was still exposed outside the mound. When Statunko passed by the tragic center of the fortress, he suddenly stopped moving forward.

"What's going on?" Statunko asked with an ugly face. What appeared in his sight was a pile of corpses more than ten meters high. He saw these white corpses piled up like a mountain, layer upon layer. coded together, even Van Lundien was impressed The mountains of bloody corpses made me feel sad. Some of them were regular soldiers, but most of them should be ordinary civilians in the fortress. These Normans who were seriously injured in the battle were casually placed by their compatriots. In the open space in the center.

"Sir, these are all seriously wounded soldiers who were killed by the enemy." A team leader who was directing the cleanup nearby quickly ran over, saluted him, and then said through gritted teeth.

"Suicide? Are they all suicides?" Statunko's face became more solemn. Frowning slightly, so much? As a soldier, he is not afraid of death and blood. But facing such a large-scale massacre is another matter.

"No, they didn't commit suicide." The squad leader raised his head and said in a very ugly tone.

"There are no obvious weapon wounds on their bodies, just because there are no treatment measures after the injuries, not even the most basic tents to protect them from wind and rain. Many soldiers did not die because of wound inflammation. In fact, in this kind of In the severe cold weather, the chance of wound inflammation is not high. They were frozen to death. When we were cleaning up, there were still a few people who had not completely died. Their clothes were also stripped off and they were just treated as They were pressed down like dead people, so they didn't die in the severe cold."

"As usual, let's burn them all."

Statunko turned his head away, unwilling to ask any more questions.

This is war, killing and being killed, just like I passed through some cities in the hinterland of Normandy that were purged by the expeditionary force. Such scenes are everywhere in this land. The Normans who were slaughtered have been slaughtered in these two months. Within that time, it will be at least over 500,000.

Large tracts of land have lost their owners, lush manors have been reduced to ruins, towns are almost empty, and few people can be seen during the day. The destructiveness of war has always been devastating, and the 200,000 Salander slaves , although they have been sold around and scattered all over the continent, there are still more than 100,000 people staying in Normandy, accounting for one-twentieth of the total population of Normandy.

As the expeditionary force advanced into the interior of Normandy, the Salander uprising grew like a volcano.

Under the slogan of rescuing compatriots, the expeditionary force can sometimes even take over several towns in a day without having to use a single soldier. What follows is a lack of faith and repressed revenge. The Rand's brutal and bloody revenge on the Normans,

The Salander slaves killed every Norman they saw, even children. Some of the methods were so outrageous that even professional soldiers like Statunko couldn't bear to continue watching.

Statunko has been stationed in Salander for more than half a year. He considers the Salander people to be a peace-loving and romantic nation, but what is shown now in front of him is completely a kind of national violence, and another On the other hand, the declining Normans mobilized everything they could. In order to make up for the lack of troops, they also sent a large number of Normandy civilians to the battlefield.

These civilians were dressed in simple linen clothes, holding improvised three-meter wooden guns in their hands, and formed meaningless square formations. The craftsmanship of this wooden gun is very simple. It only needs to make an iron tip and put it on the back. A wooden stick is enough, the craft is simple, even a An ordinary blacksmith apprentice can complete ten in an hour, which fully meets the Normandy's requirements for a large amount of equipment in a short time. Although there is no lethality, these soldiers can barely serve as a role if there are enough. cannon fodder troops,

However, such troops are completely targeted for massacre on the battlefield. The main force of the Normans has been trapped in Ilrou. Although the defense force is said to have 80,000 troops, it is actually just a group of peasant soldiers.

Statunko still remembers that on the outskirts of Kyoto in Normandy, under the ruthless moonlight, his Southern Army easily defeated 6 troops of 10,000 people with a strength of 15,000. He will always remember that battle. , not because of the victory, but because of the bloody rivers of wilderness and the disregarded corpses covering the ground, which have almost become the cheapest fertilizer on this land. The black vultures are hovering in the sky, and even the beautiful sound of the night harp strings is full of excitement. with sorrow,

In the face of the powerful expeditionary force and the Southern Army, the last resistance of the Normans was easily crushed.

Statuenko followed the order and handed over the capital to the expeditionary force that followed. At this moment, he felt a little relieved. The letter from His Majesty the Falcon came at the right time. If he continued to move forward like this, Statuenko could not guarantee that he would not become a real butcher. At least now, he was still a soldier and his opponent was also a soldier. To be continued