This giant dragon is so powerful!

On the third day when the human army entered the wilderness plain, they finally found traces of the centaurs.

"General, we found a large number of centaurs on the plain outside the dark forest to the west." The soldiers who were exploring the front line came to the base camp and reported to Duke Elkann with a solemn expression.

Duke Elkann nodded slightly and walked to the magic sand table map in the center of the camp.

The magic sand table is more than ten meters long and wide. In the sand table, the northern area of ​​the wasteland is occupied by dozens of green flags, and the southern area is occupied by dozens of blue flags. The green flag represents the kingdom behind Elkann, and the blue flag represents the principality.

"The red flag representing the centaur is marked here." Duke Elkann said, and the military mage beside him waved his staff gently, and a mini sand red flag was immediately erected in a small area near the dark forest in the west.

Duke Elkann rubbed the prickly beard on his chin, then pointed at the two areas on the outskirts of the dark forest to the left of the Centaur red flag, and said,

"Mark here the black flag of the Dark Queen, and mark there the white flag of the wild dwarves."

The mage waved his staff, and black flags and white flags instantly broke out on the sand table.

Duke Elkann looked at the sand table map at this moment, with a thoughtful expression on his face, and murmured to himself,

"What will these centaurs do next?"

Judging from the sand table map, it can be said that the Centaur has been forced to a dead end at this moment. The three directions of south, north and east are completely blocked by the Kingdom Army and the Principality Army, while in the west, the Queen of Darkness and the Brown Forest Wild Dwarf Clan are also taking root. It can be said that no force is easy to mess with.

This does not include the high-level monsters that exist outside the dark forest and the top-level monsters that may exist (equivalent to master-level professionals).

"According to many knights of the Blood Flower Knights who saw it with their own eyes, an adult black dragon helped the Centaur King in that war. This adult black dragon should undoubtedly be the Queen of Darkness."

"If the Dark Queen and the Centaur King unite... no, if our human army chooses to invade the Dark Forest, maybe the opponent will have to add a wild dwarf clan."

After some analysis, Duke Elkann frowned slightly.

But soon, his expression relaxed and he even smiled.

Since an invasion would cause so many troubles for the enemies to unite against them, wouldn't it be enough not to invade?

Not only would he not invade the Dark Forest, he would also give up the fight for the plain area close to the Dark Forest.

"Send the order and ask all the legions under your command to stop expanding their territory in the direction of the Dark Forest. If they are already close to the outer plains of the Dark Forest, evacuate as soon as possible. Finally, build a war castle immediately a hundred kilometers away from that area." Erkan The Duke said to the accompanying mage.

The mage nodded slightly, took out a spar from his arms, and silently recited a spell.

Soon, the commanders of the kingdom's legions received orders from Duke Elkann. Some were thoughtful, some were gloating, and some...

After receiving this order, the commander of the army who had just led the army to approach the plain area outside the dark forest suddenly turned ugly.

"The Duke actually ordered us to give up the fight for the land here?" The commander of the 10,000-person army, who was backed by another Duke in the kingdom, looked extremely ugly and couldn't help but cursed.

Everyone knows that the plain near the dark forest is an excellent territory. Once a town is built there, it is unknown how many adventurers will be attracted. By then, monster materials, magic plants and other resources will be available first-hand. Coupled with huge taxes and the increase in adventurers, various profit-making industry chains will be established, such as style streets, weapon shops, taverns, and casinos. Wait, these huge amounts of wealth can be seen at a glance.

The commander of the legion was able to lead the army here to enclose the land. Both he and the Duke standing behind him gave up many interests.

As a result, now Duke Elkann wants them to give up this piece of cake with an order?

Absolutely ridiculous! ridiculous!

"Contact the Duke." The legion commander made a decision in his mind.

He took out the magic crystal for communication from his arms and passed the message to Duke Hopkins behind him.

Soon, Duke Hopkins responded.

"Duke Elkann is now the general who nominally commands the kingdom's army. You must obey his orders. You will lead the army back immediately."

"Duke? This..." the legion commander couldn't help it.

"Haha, why are you so anxious? I asked you to lead the kingdom's army back, but I didn't ask you to leave the territory behind and encircle it with private soldiers."

After hearing what the Duke said, the legion commander's eyes lit up, secretly thinking that he must be an old fox like the Duke, who has his own tricks.

The kingdom's army must obey Duke Elkann's orders, otherwise they may be labeled as treason, but if they are just private soldiers in their own territory, then there is no problem at all.

There is such a saying that is widely circulated within the kingdom of feudal kings and vassals.

‘The vassals of my vassals are not my vassals. ’

The meaning is very simple. For example, if the king creates a duke, then in name, the duke is the king's vassal and needs to be loyal to the king. However, the vassals under the duke's own command have nothing to do with the king in name, and do not need to be loyal to the king. The kingdom cannot control the vassals of the duke, even if the vassals of the duke rebel. It is also left to the Duke himself to manage, and outsiders cannot interfere, because to do so would be to challenge the Duke.

This is why the overall strength of the kingdom far exceeds that of the Principality of Kas, but the power that the new king Ivan can really use is not much more than that of the Principality.

The nobles of the kingdom whose territories are far away from the wilderness plains, even if they send their own territorial private soldiers to compete for the interests of the wilderness plains, how can they win over those nobles whose territories are already close to the wilderness plains?

Even if there is a fight, those nobles whose territories are far away from the wilderness plains will only send the second son of the family to try to see if they can make some contributions in this cake-sharing feast and win a small territory. It can be regarded as increasing the influence of the entire family. It is basically impossible to send the main force of the territory to participate in this war.

It can be seen from the 100,000 troops of the kingdom that have been assembled this time. Except for the king's own people, 80% of the remaining troops come from the nobles of the southern part of the kingdom, more than 15% from the nobles of the central part of the kingdom, and the rest Less than half of them came from the nobles on the northern border of the kingdom.

There is a turbulent undercurrent on the kingdom's army side, and although the principality side has its own thoughts, on the whole, they are still cooperating with the advancement of Grand Duke Bauhinia.

"The kingdom's army is building a war castle?"

The majestic Grand Duke Bauhinia in dark blue armor frowned slightly, observed carefully on the magic sand table, and then sneered,

"Erkan is a good strategist. He gave the order to stop the entire army and immediately build a war castle a hundred kilometers away. The army is not allowed to take the initiative to approach the plain where the centaurs are."

"yes!"

The mage recited the incantation silently and conveyed the order from the Grand Duke through the magic crystal.

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