After Becoming The Tyrant CH 181 He Is The King
According to the rules of chess, "rooks" could move on horizontal and vertical lines without any limit on the number of moves, but they could not jump over pieces except when participating with the king when castling. This meant that the chariot had only one mission on the battlefield, which was to crush the enemy with a thunderous momentum. All those who stood in the way would be crushed.
Twelve siege chariots modified by alchemy rolled over the earth like giant beasts, and the moat in front of the city wall had already been piled flat with corpses and sand and gravel. Along the predetermined route, they hit the city wall hard, with a loud rumbling sound, and the power they exerted was equivalent to hundreds of conventional siege cones hitting at the same time.
The city wall lost its thickness at this time.
Stones flew up in sparks and scattered in all directions. Twelve mobile war fortresses tore a hole in the solid defense line of Yoringshire City for the first time. The knights of the Holy Army who followed behind cheered, shouted, and roared loudly. They were so excited that some of them got too close and were even smashed into pieces by the collapsing tower.
The fire was blazing, and the soldiers followed the fortress-like chariots and swarmed up, eager to enter the city of Yoringshire that symbolizes victory and start killing.
The chariots charged into the city, but suddenly fell into a deep pit that had been dug behind the city wall. Immediately afterwards, iron arrows came down like a rainstorm. In the light of the fire, the Holy Army saw that behind the city wall that the alchemical chariots had crashed into, Legrand's soldiers were fully armed, and longbowmen were lying on the eaves, shooting at the Holy Army entering the city from all directions.
"Kill!"
Sisian had put on his armor and was now directing the soldiers to charge in.
The skeleton war horses pulled the steel fortress and jumped out of the pit. An ordinary chariot would have lost its use at this time. However, the chariots created by alchemy could not be blocked by ordinary traps. With the alchemical chariots bearing the main firepower from the front, the Holy Army successfully charged in.
The weapons clashed and the sound of fighting was deafening.
But it was not just from the front battlefield!
The same deafening sound of fighting sounded from their left side and rear wing at the same time.
The fire was raging from the direction of their camp. Sisian turned his head in shock and saw countless war horses galloping back and forth in the firelight behind them. When they attacked Yoringshire City, their rear wing and left wing were also attacked at the same time. The Holy Army had always placed itself in the position of the attacker, with all its elite main forces placed at the front of the siege army, leaving its back and flanks defenseless.
If this was a frontal battle, they would certainly not be so rash.
But this was a siege!
They were the attacking party. Legrand was the one huddled in the city. They didn't need to defend at all. They only needed to penetrate Legrand's shield like an arrow. As a defender of the city, what could Legrand use to attack them? As soon as they opened the city gate, the Holy Army would immediately swarm in! What did they use to attack the Holy Army? How could it be possible to sneak around their backs and launch an attack without anyone noticing?
Was it possible that these Legrand troops grew wings overnight, flew out of the city wall, and landed behind them?
The unsuspecting follow-up troops quickly collapsed under the surprise attack. The soldiers attacking the city in front heard the noise from the rear and didn't know what was going on. They all wanted to change their direction. Except for the army dominated by the Knights Templar, the rest of the Holy Army, which was already in disarray, was in chaos because of this incident. For a moment, the knights didn't know whether to continue attacking or to turn back and defend.
No one understood how Legrand's army, which was supposed to be trapped in the city, suddenly appeared behind them.
"Border Army!"
While Sisian commanded the soldiers to withdraw from the city immediately, he quickly surveyed the entire battle situation.
There were two Legrand armies in total, and one attacked their rear army, turning the camp with only a few sick and wounded soldiers into a sea of flames. While the other force came from the northeast and launched an attack on their weaker left wing. At this time, it had torn the left wing army that was caught off guard into pieces. This second force was an elite cavalry.
To the northeast was the section of the city that the Border Army was responsible for.
Where the first force came from was currently unknown, but the cavalry attacking on the left must pass through the defense of the Holy Army of the Border. If Legrand started from the northeastern city gate and took a detour, the border troops could not be completely unaware——unless they had switched sides.
Sisian's heart suddenly sank.
Rolling stones were pushed down from both sides of the city wall where the alchemical chariots crashed, and the large rumbling sounds were heard continuously, creating obstacles for the knights entering the city to exit. The battlefield was in chaos. Sisian wanted to turn around to stop the cavalry that was piercing in from their left side like a sharp sword. Then he saw a cavalry from the Holy Army coming forward and blocking the opponent's unscrupulous pace.
Theolde had led the Knights Templar to intercept the army.
The fire ignited the darkness of the night, and in the firelight, two cavalrymen faced each other.
………………
The sound of iron arrows cutting the air, the sound of throats being pierced by arrows, the sound of blood flying, the crackling of grain burning in the fire.
The world was booming, life was passing quickly, and death was in an instant. General Johan calmly directed the soldiers to attack the scattered and weak rear of the Holy Army. In order to make the siege smoother, the rear wing of the Holy Army was composed of some weak and aging troops, including some cavalrymen who had lost their horses. This arrangement became convenient for General Johan who finally arrived on the battlefield.
After previously cutting off the Holy Army's transportation lines, General Johan led his army north to meet up with the Iron Rose Cavalry. Logically speaking, General Johan should now be retaking the occupied cities in the southeast of Legrand, but instead he appeared here.
The continuous news of victory in the Southeast was true.
But it was not obtained by General JohAn and the Iron Rose Cavalry as the news said.
Half a month ago, the army of Ingres State quietly passed through the fortress in the Kriya Mountains and arrived on the southeast coast, taking over from General Johan and the Iron Rose Cavalry. They put on the colors of the Iron Rose Cavalry and carried the dark red royal flag, creating the illusion that the two armies were still fighting in the southeast of Legrand. Relying on the previous sacrifice of Bubas City and the tenacious defense of Kriya State, this time the Holy Army failed to invade deeply into the western part of Legrand, so the forces of Ingres State in the southwest remained basically intact. The speed with which they regained their lost ground was no less than that of the Iron Rose Cavalry and the army commanded by General Johan.
During this period of time, Yoringshire City remained on defense, and did not send troops to harass the enemy even at night. The continuous victory reports in the southeast also served as a cover-up. The Holy Army did not realize that Legrand already had a capable force that could deploy reinforcements.
After changing the flags and armor, the army led by General Johan merged with the Iron Rose Cavalry, crossed the Doma River, moved along the west bank that had not been invaded by the Holy Army, and bypassed the city of Collin, which was controlled by the Holy Army. Finally, they arrived near Yoringshire City two days before the battle and finally entered the battlefield after the decisive battle started.
Kriya's archers and the Iron Rose Cavalry traveled together, and the two sides had established an initial tacit understanding during this period of battle. Before the cavalry charged, Kriyan archers took the lead in shooting from the left and right sides, opening a hole for the cavalry in advance. Then the cavalry rolled in, widening the crack.
Lives were being harvested quickly. General Johan observed the entire battlefield while killing the enemies in his path.
He looked toward the northeast of the battlefield.
There was the royal army led by the King himself.
This was a decisive battle, and they used offense instead of defense.
Therefore, they could only win and not fail.
……………………
The dark red royal flag rolled up in the flames of war, like a surging sea of blood. Opposite it was the cross flag, which was illuminated in orange.
It stood to reason that even if all the royal troops in Yoringshire City were sent out, they would still be unable to compete with the Holy Army in numbers. However, at this time, on the side of King Legrand's army, the cavalry was as thick as a forest of trees.
Theolde, wearing a white robe and leading the Knights Templar, suddenly smiled when he looked at General Velarion standing opposite in the firelight.
"Fate is such a mockery."
His tone was relaxed, without any anger at being betrayed.
"We once believed that you could lead us to salvation, so we followed you here, but now we find that you cannot do it."
General Velarion bowed slightly, showing no shame as a traitor.
The border states were closer to the far north icefield and farther away from the Holy Spirit Bay and the Holy Court. The influence of the Holy Court had not been as deep as it was in the Hopeless Inner Sea and Bressi. This time, the reason why the border countries participated in the Holy Army movement was more importantly to open their own sea routes and gain more benefits from Legrand.
Restricted by harsh natural conditions, it was difficult for the border countries to develop agriculture. However, in terms of commerce, it was actually also difficult for them to compete with the Hopeless Inner Sea and Abyss Strait Alliance, which was closer to the Holy See. Before that, when they used food as a bargaining chip in the power struggle it was based on these past disputes. But Theolde ruined their plans by causing the earth to grow wheat overnight.
After witnessing the scene in which Theolde performed a miracle to bring the soldiers out of despair, Velarion clearly understood that they were traveling with a pure politician and emperor, and not like those past popes who only had prestige but no strategic means.
He had no choice but to start thinking about other routes.
Once Pope Theolde succeeded, how would he deal with the border countries who wanted to seize dominance in the war? No emperor could tolerate this. And if Legrand was really destroyed and Pope Theolde was able to revive the Holy Empire, then they would completely lose the opportunity to rise and develop. In this war, the Holy Army of the Sea, which had participated the most, was likely to be one of the biggest beneficiaries. Then, how would they compete with the Hopeless Inner Sea Alliance and the Abyss Strait Alliance, which were closely related to the Holy Empire?
However, what really made Velarion make up his mind was the news from Legrand.
After the border troops arrived on the battlefield, they did not suffer too many attacks from Legrand, nor did they cause too much damage to Legrand. The hatred between the two sides was not as irreconcilable as that between the Holy Army of the Holy Land and the Holy Army of the Sea. Before the siege was decided, he received a secret message from Legrand.
Ferri III had led his army to conquer the capital of the Holy Empire, and the news was blocked by Theolde.
The news from Legrand might not be true. But if Theolde could block the news once, he could block the news a second time. The Holy City could be destroyed, and the capital could also be captured by Ferri III.
Destiny gave the border troops different choices:
If they supported Legrand, then after the destruction of the Holy Empire and Theolde, the Hopeless Inner Sea and Abyss Strait countries that rely on the Holy See to gain a commercial competitive advantage would no longer be able to compete with them. Without the impact of the Holy See's regulations on commerce, their fleets would no longer need to travel under heavy chains. After being severely damaged, Legrand and Bressi would also be in a long recovery period and would find it difficult to expand to the border.
Velarion believed their success rate was high.
If Legrand's news was true, the only military forces left in Theolde's hands were all in Yoringshire City now. So long as the Knights Templar were destroyed in this battle, Theolde and the Holy Empire would become history. And even if Legrand's news was to trick them into joining forces with them, so long as Theolde and the other Holy Armies were defeated here, the Holy Empire would still perish soon.
After intense discussions, the senior leaders of the Border Army finally agreed to Velarion's choice.
On this table of interests, there were no eternal friends and enemies.
Everyone here was a lamb, everyone here was a wolf.
"I should have killed you directly."
Theolde ignored Velarion and looked directly at the young monarch who had been baptized by Theolde himself back then.
"I'm only one step away from what I want most."
The King did not speak. He faced him from a distance. The firelight illuminated his expressionless face as he stood in front of all the troops.
In this world, there was no Zhu Chi and no Pureland.
But just the King.
He was the "kingship" authority itself, he was the "King"!