"We cannot have a conflict with Sigurd!"
Ella shook Amy and said excitedly.
"Even from a logical point of view, we were at fault first! Send some gold to Sigurd. If he is still not satisfied, tell him that we can compensate him more! It doesn't matter if he puts forward other conditions besides gold, in short Stabilize him first and wait until Hestein comes back! Amy, you can’t believe these barbarians at all. The only one I can trust is you, please help me go to Sigurd’s place. Okay?”
——"You have just arrived in Beihai and are not familiar with the situation here, so you should let me go."
A cold voice came from the window, and Ella was startled when she saw it - it was the red-bearded pirate. While in Brusis, his brother plotted against Amy and was killed by Ella. But the red-bearded pirate spared Ella and handed all his brother's armor and belongings into Ella's hands.
"Boss Hestein has not allowed us to take action against Lorraine. I trust his judgment. Give me the letter and gold, and I will go to Sigurd's place."
The red-bearded pirate took a sip of wine and drunkenly extended his hand to Ella.
Ella hesitated for a while, then made up her mind, wrote a letter and handed it to the red-bearded pirate.
"You are a warrior with great honor. I believe you can complete the mission."
"When my brother and I went to Constantiniya with Boss Hestein, we just wanted to make a little money. He had two children and I had three, all of whom were underage. The weather here is too damn cold. Prey is also scarce. Without taking advantage of the planting season to grab something, it will be difficult for us to survive this year. Well, now that Li is dead, I have five children to take care of."
The red-bearded pirate burped and put his face in front of Ella.
"If, I mean if, if you are the king of the Qiqiu Empire, and I want to come to you as a mercenary to make money openly, will you hire this barbarian from a foreign land? The commission I get can allow me to combine me with Will Li’s child be brought up?”
——Those who have been pirates shall be hanged according to the laws of the Seven Hills Empire. Even the king would find it difficult to change this.
However, Ella replied:
"Of course. You can come to my place as a mercenary, and I can pay double the commission."
"Thanks."
The red-bearded pirate took another sip of wine, then held the letter and walked away slowly.
…
…
When he saw the red-bearded pirate again, he was gone from the neck down. Sigurd's messenger threw the bloody head to the ground. The red-bearded head rolled several times on the ground and landed at Ayla's feet. Those eyes stared straight up at Ella, and Ella was frightened.
Sigurd's emissary then grandly delivered Sigurd's response to Ayla's letter:
"You still have one last week, so celebrate!"
Ella raised her trembling hand and waved it down hard. The pirates behind her swarmed up and cut Sigurd's envoy into pieces.
…
…
On a huge long table, there were twenty or thirty small leaders of the Hestein army sitting crookedly. Ella stood at the front of the long table, placed her hands on the table, and glanced at everyone sitting below with a serious expression.
If it weren't for a sheep bleating not far from the long table, Ella would have thought this was Constantiniya.
"'Snake Eyes' already knows the news of Lorraine being plundered. According to the messenger, 'Snake Eyes' Sigurd will lead his fleet from Frisia to Zealand in a week at the latest. .”
Ella used the most serious tone, hoping to make the little bosses here understand the seriousness of the matter. Unexpectedly, as soon as she finished speaking, there was a burst of cheers from below:
"Great, I can finally teach that Sigurd a lesson!"
"Boss Aleister and Hestein are the ones qualified to be the King of Heroes. It's time to teach Lodbrok and his lackeys a lesson!"
"Shield Girl, give the order, we will win!"
…
…
Ella felt her head start to hurt.
If they failed, the entire Sealand would be destroyed by Sigurd, but these little bosses didn't seem to have thought about this at all. They are so belligerent and never consider the consequences or even a decent battle plan.
So, Ella had no choice but to analyze it for them:
"The safest way is to defend the city until Hestein returns, but I doubt whether we can hold it until that time under Sigurd's attack."
Ella thought of Redbeard’s bloody head. And she originally wanted to send Amy to perform this task.
"So, we'd better capture Loland before Sigurd lands. Once Loran is captured, Sigurd will lose his stronghold and source of supplies, and we won't suffer from both sides of Loland and Sigurd. A flanking attack. On the contrary, the defenders in Zealand and Loland can cooperate with each other to greatly slow down Sigurd’s attack.”
——Whether things are right or wrong has no meaning at this time. Since Sigurd wanted to expand the situation into a war, Zealand could only respond.
"Deploy all your troops...seven days...no, we don't have seven days. In order to leave enough time to prepare to defend Sigurd, you must capture Lorraine within five days!"
This was the first time Ella was commanding a battle, so she gave the most common and direct instructions. Fortunately, the goal of capturing Lorraine didn't seem that difficult - their walls were made of wood, like those in Zealand, and were short and old. In Ella's opinion, this kind of city wall is no different from the fence of a pigsty. It has no defensive purpose at all and can be taken down in half a day.
Sealand's army began to gather under the city of Lorraine.
Ella was at the front reviewing the troops, and Amy followed her in small steps. There is also Gan, who always presses his hands on the dagger at his waist, following Ella like a bodyguard.
The number of troops was beyond Ella's expectation.
She originally thought that Zealand's military strength was only the two thousand men who came back with her. Unexpectedly, as soon as the order to attack Luolan was given, the Xilan people suddenly became excited, and nearly 5,000 people rushed out in a rush. After asking around, I found out that the army that followed Hestein to plunder the Seven Hills Empire was just a temporary piece made up of these ordinary tribesmen.
But as she walked, she suddenly realized something was wrong——
"I should have said to bring all the siege weapons - the trebuchets? Why didn't I see the trebuchets?"
"That thing is so complicated that it makes my brain hurt. I really can't figure it out." Gan replied with a smile while rubbing his head.
"What about the siege tower? Why didn't I see the siege tower?"
"What is that? I've never heard of it."
Ella grabbed Gan's shoulders with trembling hands:
"Don't tell me that you don't have any siege weapons and you want to attack a walled city!"
"Usually, Boss Hestein or Bjorn would hit it with a weapon, and the wall would be broken."
"But both of them are not here now! Don't tell me again that in your civilization for hundreds of years, you have always used elven-level protected ones to attack cities!"
"How is that possible? We still have ladders that can climb up from the city wall. Sister Shield Girl, look, they are all ready. Order the attack immediately! I can't wait any longer!"
"How dare I order an attack in this situation!"
Ella was about to cry. She only saw that the northern tribe's city wall technology was backward, but she did not consider that the strength of the city wall was always linked to the advanced level of siege equipment. If they dare to use this kind of fence as a city wall, it means that none of the nearby tribes have weapons that can easily break through this kind of fence.
"It's too complicated, right? It hurts your brain, right? I'll show you the drawing of the catapult right now!"
Ella went crazy, lying on the ground and drawing five or six kinds of sketches in a row.
"This is the most advanced catapult currently used by the Qiqiu Empire. This is the catapult that the Tianfang Empire started using three hundred years ago. This is the simple catapult copied from the Alemannic Federation a hundred years ago... You can tell me what is the difficulty in these structures!"
"Your Majesty...it's not difficult because it's you..." Amy whispered to the side, "I feel a little dizzy just looking at it...and even in the Qiqiu Empire, normal craftsmen can't be like you. Zi drew six different drawings..."
"Why? Aren't they clearly drawn in "Illustrated Siege Equipment"?"
"I'm afraid you are the only one who would read such an unpopular book..."
"Then go to school right now! Where are the craftsmen? Craftsmen, come here quickly! According to this drawing, let me make the catapult right away!"
"Your Majesty... you read it from the book, so it's not surprising that you would say something like this..." Amy said coyly, "As far as I know, even the most skilled craftsmen can't actually build a siege aircraft. It will also take half a month to install the device..."
"It doesn't matter so much, brothers, charge forward!"
Someone in the crowd roared, and Sealand's army rushed toward the city wall of Loland. Ella was left behind in a daze.
