Urban Sims

Spring is at the end of April.

Under the gaze of everyone, a huge convoy consisting of hundreds of carriages set off from the royal capital of Diluo City and headed east towards the Soliu Kingdom.

This convoy is the marriage convoy of Princess Xivenis who married to the Soliu Kingdom for the sake of peace between the two countries.

Before the motorcade set off, in order to make the performance more realistic, Queen Yara cried so hard that she held her daughter's hand tightly and fainted several times from crying.

King James also wiped the corners of his eyes, looking sad and helpless.

There were also several young nobles with expressions of grief and anger. They pulled out the swords at their waists and tried to stop the convoy several times to prevent this humiliating marriage!

However, these nobles were still controlled by the warriors and all were taken away.

At this scene, the special envoy sent by the Soliu Kingdom looked even more proud, with his nostrils raised to the sky.

He sarcastically said: "The Kingdom of Yadud is not a weak country. I didn't expect that there are only such a few good guys."

"I have taken your princess away. I believe that His Majesty the King and His Highness the Prince of our country will like her very much!"

"Hahahahahaha!"

Amid the wild laughter of the special envoy, the convoy set off.

Everyone present to see him off was angry but dared not speak.

After the special envoy and the convoy walked away, everyone's gloomy expressions finally turned into smiles like the sunshine melting.

"Let them be happy for a few days. In two months, will they still be able to laugh?" said an earl.

"Bah! The more proud they are, the worse they will fall!" Another earl spat.

"We'd better hurry up and prepare. That woman will give us two months at most. All the border regiments of the Soliu Kingdom are in place, and they may find an excuse to attack us at any time."

Zhou Ming said, their mercenary recruitment progress is only about 60%, and less than 30,000 people have arrived in the Yadud Kingdom. They need to speed up and recruit as many people as possible.

Everyone nodded and cheered up.

…

More than two months later.

Spring is at the beginning of July.

The first season of spring wheat has been harvested.

The special envoy from the Soliu Kingdom came to the Yadud Kingdom again.

Make a request:

"Prince Jeffrey of our country is very satisfied with His Royal Highness the Princess of your country, and His Majesty the King also likes her very much, but..."

"For such an important matter as the marriage between the two countries, your country only gave 100 carts of gifts as a dowry. It is really too shabby. The noble ministers of our country are very dissatisfied, so..."

King James interrupted him and said expressionlessly: "The gift of 100 carts is worth more than 300,000 gold coins. Isn't it enough?"

"this……"

The special envoy looked embarrassed: "According to the customs of our country, for a princess as noble as her, the dowry should be about 5 million gold coins, and 300,000... is far from enough."

"No, not a single one." King James waved his hand, his face turning cold.

"I know you don't have it, so His Majesty the King of our country hopes that the Kingdom of Yadud will give 13 earldoms of Dongjing as a dowry to our country... to show the sincerity of the marriage between the two countries."

At this time, the shameful face of the Soliu Kingdom was finally fully exposed.

After the special envoy finished speaking, he still looked at everyone with a proud face, wanting to see the reactions on everyone's faces.

anger.

Sad and angry.

Or get furious?

but……

The envoy was disappointed that no one in the court was angry or shouted loudly.

On the contrary, it was extremely calm.

It feels eerily calm.

"Samurai, drag him down and kill him!"

There was a voice in his ears, which frightened the envoy to death.

King James!

The king directly ordered his death?

"Hua Hua~ Hua Hua~"

Two armored warriors walked into the palace, their armors making a rustling sound.

"Etc., etc!"

Seeing the warriors getting closer and closer, the envoy's legs weakened and he almost knelt down. He said in a panic: "You can't kill me, you can't kill me!"

"Our country has prepared an army of 500,000 people at the border. If you kill me, a war will break out between the two countries!"

"An army of five hundred thousand, a full half million! If you can't stop it, you can't stop it!"

"Let me go, let me go!"

The envoy screamed desperately, but no one was moved at all. Two warriors immediately restrained him and dragged him down.

"Don't kill me, please, I was wrong! Please don't kill me!"

The last voice of the special envoy came, and then it turned into a scream.

The special envoy of the Soliu Kingdom was killed like a chicken.

Not only him, but the entire special envoy sent by the Soliu Kingdom, more than 20 people in total, were all killed, and no one was left dead.

In this way, it was more than twenty days later when the senior officials of the Soliu Kingdom learned that the envoy to the Yadud Kingdom had unfortunately encountered thieves and all of them were killed.

Those more than 20 lives were equivalent to buying more than 20 days for the Yadud Kingdom.

Plus the more than two months that Isa, who pretended to be a princess, had gained.

The two contributed a total of three months.

Plus the three months that both parties would have originally had.

In other words, in order to deal with the inevitable war between the two countries, the Yadud Kingdom has made full preparations for half a year (years)!

In six months, for Zhou Ming, he not only built a 100,000-strong mercenary army, a 100,000-person kingdom army and a 100,000-person logistics support army—— In total, a huge army of 300,000 people was formed!

And conducted more than two months of formal training.

All kinds of supplies are enough to last this legion for 6 months!

Even various new weapons have been developed in five or six models, and 89,000 people have been equipped with them.

For example, the ultra-long-range divine arm crossbow, the sharp cleaver, the lightweight breastplate, petroleum-based incendiary bombs, and the powerful breech-loading rifle developed based on a type of red gunpowder used in dwarf gunpowder guns, etc.

Especially the breech-loading rifle has a maximum effective killing range of more than 600 meters and can fire six to eight rounds per minute. It can be called an artifact.

However, due to insufficient raw materials for preparing red gunpowder, only more than 800 such breech-loading rifles were produced, equipped with elite troops, and played a role as a battlefield killer.

In short, whether it is soldiers, weapons, food, training or other aspects, the Yadud Kingdom is fully prepared for everything.

On the Soliu Kingdom's side, the eager war faction declared war on the Yadud Kingdom on the grounds that "insufficient protection resulted in the death of the Soliu Kingdom's special envoy" and immediately launched military operations.

It's just that under the excellent disguise and perfect confidentiality system of the Yadud Kingdom, the senior officials of the Soliu Kingdom and the commanders of the Western Army have not yet realized what kind of force they are about to face.

…

Kingdom of Yadud.

Eastern border.

In a border fortress.

There is a mercenary group of about a hundred people stationed.

This mercenary group is called the "Fire Mercenary Group". It has a history of more than 30 years and has participated in more than 50 conflicts and wars. The team members have also changed six or seven times. The 21 founders at the time of the group's founding, due to various reasons The reason is that there are only 3 left now.

Hodet Agni, who is in his fifties and has a conspicuous light-colored scar on his forehead, is one of the only three old men left in the regiment.

After the morning exercise this morning, before breakfast, when he went to the command tower to ask the regiment leader to have breakfast, he found that the regiment leader was holding a charcoal in his hand and writing and drawing on the wall.

The leader's name is Klein. He is in his forties, one of the three old men, and the son of the previous leader. He has one eye and excellent swordsmanship.

What he cares about most every day is how to lead the mercenary group to a stable and bright future.

"Klein, stop painting and go have breakfast."

The group leader didn't seem to hear it.

Instead, he kept mumbling:

"After the war starts, if you guard this fortress for three days, you can get the remaining 50% of the commission, and you can leave the frontline battlefield at any time."

"If you hold on to the fortress for more than five days, you can get 150% commission and 1,000 merit points."

"If you persist for more than ten days, you will get 200% commission and 2,000 merit points."

"In addition, every time you kill an enemy, you can get 10 merit points."

"Capturing an enemy with sound hands and feet can get you 50 points."

"The merit points can be exchanged for many things, such as gold coins. One merit point can be exchanged for one gold coin."

"You can also get better weapons."

"Even, as long as the merit point reaches 10,000 points, you can exchange it for a baron title with a territory."

"10,000 points, Hodet, I think it's not difficult to get."

"If we hold on to this fortress for more than ten days and kill 800 more enemies or capture 160 prisoners, we can earn 10,000 merit points..."

Leader Klein became more and more excited as he spoke: "Hodet, I can become a territorial noble!"

"At that time, we can end this dissolute life of licking blood from the edge of a knife!"

"Hodet, don't you think that's great?"

Klein asked, grabbing Hodet.

"Okay, okay, let's go have breakfast. If it's late, we won't have anything to eat! Those big eaters won't save some for you just because you are the leader."

Hodet said helplessly, "I don't know what happened, but since the "Military Merit Reward Details" were issued, the always clear-headed leader Klein was like a man possessed, calculating all day long how to get 10,000 merit value.

Hodet thought in his heart: Maybe he has lived a wandering life for too long. When faced with an opportunity to become a noble and live a stable life, the leader behaved like a child who is eager to get his beloved toy.

Of course, Hodet also longs for stability and has been tempted, but he has experienced too much and has had opportunities of one kind or another. They are placed in front of him. Once he seizes them, he will be able to flourish, but in the end... what he gains Still mostly disappointed.

He also stayed in the mercenary group.

"Dang Dang Dang Dang Dang~"

The extremely urgent alarm gong suddenly sounded!

"The enemy is coming!"

"A large number of enemies are coming!"

"Everyone is in position and ready for war!"

The old man Arnold, who had been standing guard in the watchtower, loudly reported the enemy's situation.

"coming!"

"They're finally here!"

Klein stood up in excitement, holding the heavy sword hanging on the wall, and walked quickly towards the stone wall with great excitement.

…

"Charge! Kill!"

"For glory!"

On the not-so-distant horizon, countless military phalanxes of the Soliu Kingdom were lined up, roaring like a tide, rushing towards the hundreds of fortresses on the eastern border of the Yadud Kingdom.