The speed of the cavalry far exceeded Mathias's expectations.
The number of nobles on the territory of the Western Empire is the largest and most densely populated area in the entire empire.
The large number of nobles also means that they canonize more knights.
In addition, the Western Empire connected two grasslands including Pingfeng Grassland. War horses were relatively cheap, and families with a little wealth were willing to support a knight retinue.
After all, a knight's retinue has a chance to be selected by a noble. If he is lucky, he may become the next knight to obtain a fief.
Matthias followed Kerrigan all the way and encountered dozens if not dozens of knight teams.
These people are more or less powerful in frontal impact, but they have never seen them so fast.
Xu Lai not only has great speed, but also has a prayer effect. He leads top knights such as either Holy Light Knights or Valiant Knights.
In a blink of an eye, the two teams of cavalry bypassed the fighting parties and plunged into the Magog group from both sides from the rear.
From the time Mattias saw the two groups of knights, to the order to turn around Magog, Gog and other long-range troops, to the moment he was stabbed by the knights, the whole process did not take more than 5 minutes.
The charging knight was too fierce and violent.
Especially after Tahan was promoted to general, the fearless knight, the only profession at level 9, seemed to be superimposed on hundreds of tanks and rushed into the sheep at a speed of more than a thousand yards.
Gog at level 3 and Magog at level 4 are as fragile as paper and cannot cause any lag to the knights.
Only Matthias and the governor's personal guards around him were well equipped and rough-skinned, so they were barely able to resist.
But even these people were only delayed for a while.
Even Matthias's head was cut off silently without knowing which knight it belonged to.
In fact, Mathias wanted to run when he saw those knights. However, these knights were much faster than he expected, leaving him no place to run even if he wanted to.
The morale of the hell army was not very high to begin with, but now that the leader has been cut off, morale has plummeted.
In addition to plummeting morale, the hero who led the team was killed, and the specialization and attribute blessings it gave to the entire army lost their effect at this moment.
Originally, relying on defensive skills, offensive skills and other specialization effects and higher levels, even though they are far inferior to human infantry, they can barely cause some damage to the opponent.
There is no need to worry about yourself, being hacked to death by infantry who are not good at attacking, without even a chance to save you.
However, with the death of Matthias.
The negative status of morale is getting worse. Without the blessing of offensive skills, neither the horned demon nor the demon warlord can even break through the defense.
But their enemies only need a light sword to chop off a demon's head without much force.
The situation instantly collapsed like an avalanche, and there was no room for recovery.
All the demons were running away like crazy, wishing they could grow wings immediately and fly out of this carnage-like Shura field.
But in front are red-eyed infantry and pikemen. These soldiers recruited from believers are not herdsmen.
The herdsmen have suffered enough from the orcs, but they have never fought against the hell demons.
Most of these believers come from villages destroyed by demons, and many of them escaped from the Western Empire.
Otherwise, no matter how great the temple’s reputation is and how large its territory is, it is impossible to really mobilize a population of more than one million young adults at will.
At the same time, they are also believers in the God of War, and the idea they have been instilled in them since childhood is to kill demons.
Now that these demons are in their hands, how can they get away with it?
And their way back was cut off by the knights at the rear.
The collapsed demon can't even defeat level 4 infantry and level 4 pikemen, let alone fight against an average level 8 knight.
Some cunning demons may be able to sneak out from both sides, but most demons cannot outrun two-legged infantry, let alone four-legged knights.
Seeing that the fight would last from day to night, the demons would have an advantage in the dark. The most important thing was that Xu Lai was not familiar with this place.
At this time, when the various units were chasing the demon, they were already scattered. If they did not gather while there was still light, it would be extremely easy for non-combat attrition to occur at night.
Blow the rally call, summon soldiers and horses, rectify the troops, and set up camps.
Everything is in order and well arranged by officers at all levels. There is no need for Xu Lai to give orders.
It is said that the battlefield is the best training ground and actual combat is the best teacher, and this is indeed true.
This team had been training in Qingfeng City for more than a month, and when they were pulled out, they were still a disorganized team.
After several actual battles, it is now an elite force capable of winning battles and daring to fight tough battles.
At night, Arvid worked tirelessly and led the transport team on several trips in a row.
Not only did they transport a large number of tents, bedding and other camping supplies, they also reorganized the previous team of civilians in Hantan City.
These civilian husbands took the initiative to undertake transportation, camping, cooking and other tasks that had nothing to do with combat.
Although Arvid didn't say anything, Xu Lai knew that at least at this moment, Arvid's heart was towards the Eagle Kingdom.
Xu Lai dealt with the upgrade of the Qingfeng Legion, and then transferred some soldiers from the Coast Guard.
The heroes on the other side of hell have been slaughtered.
And because of this hell hero, the Qingfeng Legion gained a lot of extra experience.
Almost comparable to the total of two consecutive battles in Long'an City and Wasteland City for many days.
Without the hero standing guard, even if there are still generals from Hell, the difficulty of siege has dropped by several levels in an instant.
The reason why Xu Lai still needs to mobilize troops is because this area is too big.
After the camp was set up, Xu Lai immediately found the refugees who had fled to Hantan City.
And for the sake of rigor, Xu Lai specially invited Arvid over to prevent errors in the intelligence.
According to what these refugees said, more than a dozen nearby cities and nearly a hundred villages and towns all belong to a demon lord named Matthias.
This Matthias is the demon hero who was stabbed to death by a heroic knight in the afternoon. He belongs to the Burning Legion of Hell, but his ranking is not high.
The major legions of hell, including the one from Sellon, have been dispersed by Xu Lai.
The remaining members of the Northern Empire who were responsible for guarding the Gate of Hell were also seriously injured by Xu Lai's attack. Finally, they fled to other hell cities under the attack of the coalition forces of the Northern Empire and the Temple.
Based on the intelligence from the tower, many of them fled there and captured two more hills of the tower.
The Mage Council in the tower has as many mountains as there are great magisters.
Now three have been occupied by hell, and even the Aswan Snow Mountain has been completely transformed into the Aswan Furnace.
The remaining half naturally escaped to the Western Empire through the hell passage in the city. These heroes are not valued by Kerrigan.
After some of them were transferred to the Burning Legion, the rest were stationed in the corners and underdeveloped areas just like Mathias.
Based on most people’s intelligence, Kerrigan has not allocated the parts of the Western Empire close to the imperial capital, the Northern Empire, and the Southern Empire yet.
These places are all under Kerrigan's control for the time being. At most, during the rest period of half a year, demons were temporarily assigned to take charge of management.
And because the descending heroes could not gain Kerrigan’s trust, more heroes native to hell died in battle.
At the same time, heroes are also needed to guard the territory of one's own hell. Otherwise, those heroes who are not valued may cause some stories.
So, the only demon hero that can be found in this large nearby city is Matthias.
In addition to this large area, the several territories adjacent to Mathias are all probably like counts, and there is only one hero.
Counties may be large or small, but no matter how small they are, they must have at least a dozen cities.
In larger ones, there are even nearly a hundred cities on the grassland.
Although Kerrigan has not mobilized many troops in these corner territories, their own combat effectiveness is not high.
In most cases, it is basically similar to Mathias, with only some middle and low-level units at most.
Xu Lai calculated that it is not difficult to capture these cities. The difficulty is that the nearby villages and towns have been swept away by demons.
Just like the demons are difficult to clean up, just like the humans in this land, Xu Lai cannot clean up the demons in a short time.
So, in addition to needing a large number of fast-moving knights, he also needs a large number of troops.
It will take at least a week or so for the real Qingfeng Legion to arrive.
It’s not that Reina will delay, but the Qingfeng Legion is all infantry. This time they will set off with full baggage and logistics troops, so the speed will naturally not be fast.
“Mr. Arvid, after the cruisers in the shipyard are launched, let’s renovate all the transport ships.
With the current strength of the Coast Guard, not to mention actually protecting the coastline, at least operating across this cold river, there shouldn't be much of a problem.
By the way, are there enough sailors? This position cannot be replaced by recruiting soldiers. If it is not enough, we must recruit as soon as possible.
Don’t have any worries about your treatment, just follow the Qingfeng Legion.
You should also be able to see things like salary and food these days.
I won’t go into details about the rest of the benefits, military uniforms, etc. You can find out about it from any officer. ”
Although Xu Lai didn't go into details, Arvid had actually asked about these things a long time ago.
The Coast Guard was established in a hurry, and the rest of the benefits have not yet been implemented.
But Xu Lai got his salary back when he came up. That standard, not to mention compared with the current salary which is not even enough to eat, is more than one level better than the previous regular army of the empire.
Judging from the whole day's fighting today, no matter how fierce the fighting was, how serious the injuries were, or even if some people were killed, there was no sign of flinching from these recruits.
Of course this is because the believers have a firm belief, but Xu Lai has given them enough so that they have no worries.
For example, the hundreds of soldiers who died in the battle today were resurrected by angels before dinner was ready, and they could still have a hot dinner.
"Don't worry, Your Majesty, Hantan City has received many people from Thorn City. Both of our cities rely on the river for food.
I dare not say anything else. There must be enough sailors.
Not to mention the many refugees. Many of them swam directly across the river, and their water skills were excellent
With a little training. sailor."
Xu Lai nodded and said: "This is the best. The current transport ships are not big enough and the efficiency is not high enough.
The main force and the logistics force brought by General Reina, together, at least There are about 200,000.
With the cavalry troops I left in Hantan City, it will take several days just to transport them.
Besides, I said. It's a bad word. We are not a match for the Burning Legion now.
What if Kerrigan suddenly kills us and catches us by surprise.
With the current transportation efficiency, even if we successfully evacuate, we will still be blocked by the cold river.
After you go back later, you still have to hurry up and try to produce a few more transport ships.
Workers’ wages can be more generous, and those who are willing to work overtime should be given sufficient benefits. "
Arvid mused: "Your Majesty, the slow landing efficiency is not just because there are not enough transport ships.
The most important thing is that there are not many ports suitable for landing.
If you agree, I would like to apply for some civil servants to expand and renovate this port to make it more convenient for ships to use.
In addition, when we were patrolling a few days ago, we discovered the Hell camp’s fleet in the tributaries of the upper reaches of the Han River.
The number of ships in this fleet is not large. If you allow me, I would like to take down this fleet and see if I can get their shipyard back. "
Arvid was unwilling to say it before because he was afraid that Xu Lai would not want to start a war with Hell at this time.
He originally wanted to be more prepared, especially those cruisers and the soldiers on the ship, after they are all under control, just do it first
But after seeing the Qingfeng Legion's performance today, Arvid knew that with his methods, it was impossible to pry the hearts of those soldiers.
Besides, this young King is very courageous and is a man who dares to fight the demons of hell.
In this case, there is no need for him to hide it, so he can just tell it.
Xu glanced at Arvid and said nonchalantly:
“You are temporarily in charge of the Coast Guard, and you can make your own decisions on matters on the river.
In addition to this port, you can also renovate all nearby landing locations.
In addition, you are in a special situation now. You should train a few outstanding navy generals as soon as possible.
On my map, there are more than a dozen cities, large and small.
If you don’t get out and help me as soon as possible, are we going to give up these cities to the demons of hell again? "
Arvid was stunned. He thought that Xu Lai was taking away his position as city lord to guard against him.
Unexpectedly, Xu Lai actually wanted to hand over the management of Mathias's territory and more than a dozen cities to him.
You know, there is a castle and three base camp-level cities here. (End of this chapter)