So two days after the decisive battle at sea, the first legion from the Kingdom of Zealand/Tulip Dynasty consisted of 31,000 soldiers, together with 2,000 auxiliary troops from Corsica, and 3,000 servant troops from the Latin Island. ; We have arrived at Cagliari, the capital at the southern end of the big island.
Yes, in the eyes of Meristo, the ambassador of the Eastern Empire who accompanied the army; the Sealand Kingdom Army, which had broken the traditional military operation and wartime model, even had the remaining strength to recruit and arm the impoverished lower class people in the cities that were captured or surrendered along the way. and the unemployed, as auxiliary troops.
The outside kingdom's army will specially select those nobles and officials who insist on resisting and their accomplices, as well as the most famous local loan sharks, and have these newly formed local servants execute them collectively in batches; and then burn them in public. the bonds and title deeds in their possession;
The auxiliary army composed of Corsican people was even more eager for revenge. Under the leadership of the kingdom's cavalry in squadrons and squads, they raided the estates of officials, nobles and big landowners in the Latin Principality; and took away some of them. Along with the property, food, women and children were sent to the army.
Only by surrendering as quickly as possible, handing over city defenses and weapons in a timely manner, and preparing a sum of materials and money in varying amounts as a price for redeeming one's own safety, can one be treated as innocent by the Kingdom's army. Otherwise, starting from the top figures, they will be tortured and abused.
It can be said that in front of the army led by the King of Knights, according to the conventions and unspoken rules of war in the past, the dignity and preferential treatment for the nobles and gentry no longer exist; this certainly made Melisto, who was born in the Eastern Empire royal family, sigh with emotion. Worried, yet gloating.
Because the Sealand army was wreaking havoc on the mainland of the Western Empire, which was the island of Latin where the rise of the tyrant Sivier II the Younger was fundamental. The more thoroughly the Royal Army destroyed and looted, the greater the damage it would cause; and after the incident, The cost and price of restoring order will be greater.
At least compared to Corsica, the fourth largest island in the Mediterranean that is mountainous and barren, or Sicily, the largest island with hills and broken terrain; the second largest Latin island, except for the northeastern In addition to the mountains, there are also plain areas of various sizes suitable for farming.
In particular, the Capitano Plain, where the largest city and capital Carilia is located, is the main producing area of grains, fruits and vegetables on Latin Island. It also spans the southern end of the hinterland in the middle of the island and the seaside. It connects many narrow coastal plains together.
Therefore, coupled with the copper, lead and other minerals in the northern hills and northeastern mountains, the population and various resource output on Latin Island are almost more than the other three islands combined; and Carilia is both the capital and the first A large port located adjacent to the hub of the busy Mediterranean trade routes.
Therefore, the Western separatist faction with Latin Island as its base, and the predecessor of the Western Empire's royal family, the Xavier family, relied on many places for dragon prosperity. Coupled with the beautiful local scenery and mild climate with sunshine for most of the year, it is called the Royal Garden of the Western Empire.
Outside the city of Cagliari, which is close to the seaport, there are still the palaces and gardens of the Siver royal family, the gardens of the Lord of the Principality; the manors and villas of ministers and nobles, high-ranking officials, and wealthy businessmen. However, as the Latin Principality shrunk its existing troops, they were all occupied by the Royal Army.
As the ambassador to the army, Melisto also had the opportunity to settle in the lair/palace of the tyrants of the Western Empire for the first time since the separation of the Eastern and Western Empires as a member of the Eastern Empire's royal family. Therefore, the first thing he had to do was Just let the painter in the entourage do an on-the-spot sketch.
I want to remember this special moment. After all, the Eastern Empire relied on its size advantage in population and territory spanning Asia Minor, the Apennine Peninsula, the Balkan Peninsula, and Thrace. It also had land support from Eastern Daxia, and the land and sea trade between the three continents Hub bonus.
They had marched to the city of Rome several times, almost forcing the Seaver family, the core of the separatism in the west, which was the schism at that time, to betray their relatives. Even the most trusted palace steward of the opponent secretly went out of the city to negotiate the terms of surrender; but the members of the Seaver family But he resisted desperately.
They were even prepared to abandon the city of Rome, retreat to southern Italy to continue fighting, and even rely on the base in Latin Island to hold on and fight for a long time. It's just that the sudden change in the celestial sphere changed many things, and also made the reunification of the Zaixing Empire come to nothing.
Therefore, as a potential retreat for the dynasty, the city of Cagliari, which was originally built on a platform at the corner of the promontory bay at the mouth of the sea, was built very solidly from the beginning; then, after successive expansions and additions, it is now a triple-layered city. The city is surrounded by a large city with a population of hundreds of thousands.
The current terrain of Cagliari is also very dangerous. To the south is the port area and the vast sea overlooking the sky; to the west and southwest are wide Haikou rivers and large soft sandbars; to the east is a large vent. Lakes, salt marshes and an extremely narrow earth-rock dam.
Only the vast plain area to the north is dotted with mature orchards, farmland, and vegetable beds; it is also the only depth direction suitable for large-scale attacks. But it was cut off by three walls that gradually descended, forming a three-dimensional city defense system with almost no dead ends.
Between these three walls, there are depths and buffers of varying distances; in addition to clusters of private houses, markets and shops, there are also a constant number of wells, pools, and even small fields and Vegetable plots, stables and corrals; monitored and guarded by towers along the walls.
This is the temporary city defense layout detected by the hot air balloon rising high. After it was reflected in the specific sand table model, even Meristo, the ambassador of the Eastern Empire who was least knowledgeable about military affairs, couldn't help but frown. In addition, the remnants of the defeated Western Empire Navy also retreated here.
More than twenty sailing warships are huddled in the port area protected by the embankment. They rely on the cover of the heavy and thick old-fashioned cannons, stone-fired cannons, and heavy scorpion crossbows arranged on the condescending walls to avoid being blocked by the open sea. The Kingdom's navy pursued them and further killed them all.
But there is also a small piece of good news. During the end of the naval battle two days ago, the Kingdom's navy accidentally captured an important member of the Carol family of the Latin Duke's royal family. He was also directly appointed by August of the Western Empire to command the three principalities of the Kingdom's navy. Admiral Vannett of the Grand Squadron.
In addition, some abnormal phenomena were discovered in the sea area where the "Holy Trinity" was sunk; a large number of sailors and soldiers fell into the sea for no apparent reason. Finally, through special investigation methods, it was proved that it was related to the wreckage of the "Holy Trinity" that sank to the seabed dozens of meters deep.
According to the report of the Grand Knight who dived underwater, many human bones were gathered on the wreckage of the ship that sank on the seabed; even the swimming fish and other marine life in a large area of the sea have disappeared as a result; therefore, they are trying to Pick up this mutated wreckage.
On the other hand, through the armed monks/chaplains of the pious company, they interrogated the Latin Grand Duke's brother, Admiral Vanette Carroll, whose mother was a member of the royal family, and who suffered a severe mental blow after he and his ship were captured. ; Also got a lot of news about contemporary Latin royal families.
For example, after the Western Empire royal family was invited to take over Rome, it stayed and thrived in its birthplace. The current Latin Grand Duke Ramsey Carlo was considered a rather ambitious and enterprising ruler; but unlike the young Augusto of the dynasty, St, but the relationship is a bit subtle or alienated.
Because during his reign, he organized the army to practice martial arts and recruited brave nobles and civilians in the territory; he spent a lot of effort in various ways to form three field corps and a garrison corps; in fact, it had exceeded that of the original The size of the vassal's armed forces limited by the League of Romagna.
However, because they have a particularly close personal relationship with Prince Valurian, another member of the royal family who holds the power of the frontier, and the Carroll family also has a long history in the imperial navy; therefore, even the previous generation August sent out many The military prosecutor and the imperial minister also failed to grasp the clue.
On the contrary, when his predecessor Augustus was critically ill, he reached a tacit agreement with the uneasy princes in the north; at Diocletian's Palace in Rome, they jointly launched an attack to force the emperor to surrender. In exchange for supporting and supporting the successor of the previous generation August "The Unsullied", he received a golden edict to send troops to intervene in the kingdom.
What happened next is beyond words. The coalition of more than a dozen Northern Italian princes, led by the four principalities and one kingdom, certainly occupied a large area of territory in the kingdom and plundered a lot of wealth and resources; however, they also suffered a devastating blow from the rise of the Free Army in the south.
But the armies of Verona, Lombardy or the Principality of Milan were almost completely destroyed within the kingdom. Because the Latin Principality had sea support, it was able to return to the country relatively organically after being severely damaged. Then the principality, whose strength was greatly reduced, was unsurprisingly liquidated by the royal family.
In addition, several princes and ministers who held heavy troops or held important positions, including Prince Valiulian, the governor of the Casilia frontier, died suddenly or were killed after being snatched away from their positions; or they fled back to their territories and wanted to He raised his troops to resist, but was attacked and killed by the imperial guards and imperial guards who followed closely.
Therefore, the situation of the Latin Archduke Ramsay Carlo has become dangerous and embarrassing; but fortunately, he still retains part of his military strength and has intact naval power; therefore, he has not been attacked like the princes of Northern Italy. The great liquidation and prosecution of the Roman imperial court.
But after these years of suppression and pursuit, the princes of Northern Italy have all succumbed one after another, or collapsed or split on their own. Naturally, huge pressure fell on the Latin Archduke, who was a distant branch of the royal family. As the last bit of dignity left to him, and its accompanying conditions.
It means handing over the dominance of two of the three local navies under the name of the Latin Principality, while retaining only the main fleet stationed in Cagliari. At the same time, at an appropriate time not long after, Ramsey Carlo announced his retirement; his second son Iruria, who was far away in Rome, served as the regent of the principality.
However, this result also led to serious differences and subtle divisions among factions within the principality. Therefore, when the army led by Jiang Tian suddenly arrived across the sea, it unexpectedly hit the principality during a period of internal chaos; therefore, it was not possible to form and mobilize enough combat, counterattack, and defensive forces in time.
It was not until the defeat of the naval battle off the coast of Corsica that many cities in the northern and central parts of the island fell one after another that the interior was reunified. But only the territory on the plains at the southern end of the island was left; it was the Latin Archduke's insistence that led to the abandonment of most of the undefendable cities and towns.
Admiral Fannette Carroll also provided another overlooked detail; that is, after the defeat of the Latin Archduke, he spent huge sums of money to recruit and form a bodyguard with extraordinary force in addition to the traditional blood knights.
Among them, there are even some suspected existences of dark creatures or their ethnic groups, which originally only existed in folk songs and ancient legends. This immediately attracted Jiang Tian's attention; after all, all the aliens in the kingdom had been wiped out, and the remaining fish that had slipped through the net could not collect much variables and energy. (End of chapter)
