Goddess Kaleidoscope

"You want my army to retreat fifty li?"

"Yes, as long as your main force retreats fifty miles, I will give the remnants of the Second Army Corps a way out. That's more than ten thousand people, including not only civilian soldiers but also many noble officers. You may not care, but the families behind them may not."

"Absolutely impossible! Don't try to threaten me with that. I believe the Second Legion consists of honorable Imperial soldiers. If they die a glorious death, I will naturally give their families the rewards they deserve."

"Really? I don't believe it."

Lude revealed a playful smile. In order to achieve centralized power, the imperial family did indeed suppress or even eliminate a large number of local nobles who challenged the central government. However, at the same time, a group of new nobles who supported the imperial family rose up with the empire. These bureaucratic nobles were different from the landowning nobles; they were the core of the Canary Islands imperial family.

Moreover, the impact of the Second Army Corps being "severely damaged" versus being "completely annihilated" is quite different.

The two men stared at each other silently for a moment. Just when Canary III thought that Rudd was going to escalate the negotiations, Rudd silently got up and walked out, which left Canary III completely bewildered.

"you……"

"Since you've said it's absolutely impossible, then it's impossible. I'll come back in a couple of days."

Leaving the bewildered emperor behind, Lude left the tent. Kanna, who was eating melon seeds, immediately ran over with her short legs and instantly transformed into a giant feathered dragon. With a casual flick of her long tail, she frightened the imperial soldiers into retreating.

Lude gently patted the little one's big head, ignoring the hordes of Imperial soldiers around them, and said to her with a smile.

"Let's go back."

Kanna leaped onto the dragon's back and launched herself into the sky, accelerating from zero to Mach 3 in less than a second, breaking the sound barrier less than 300 meters above the Imperial army camp. The powerful sonic boom knocked over a group of soldiers on the ground and also attracted the attention of the Yordle Fortress to the north.

After Lud's dashing departure, most of the soldiers in the Imperial camp breathed a sigh of relief. Grand Marshal Jagger learned from his men that when Lud arrived riding that "strange dragon," the soldiers were not entirely unresponsive; rather, they couldn't get close to him at all. Swords and magic couldn't break through his divine barrier, and they could only watch helplessly as he walked towards the central command tent.

Seeing that Lud had finally left, the generals rushed into the tent. Seeing that Canary III was safe and sound, Jagger's heart, which had been hanging in suspense, was finally put at ease.

"Your Majesty, are you... alright?"

"It's alright, that man didn't hurt me, but... he used the remnants of the Second Army Corps to coerce me into retreating fifty miles."

"Your Majesty, you...you didn't really agree to him, did you?"

"No, but I still feel uneasy."

At this moment, Canary III felt his mind was in turmoil. Besides the problem of the Second Legion, what made him even more confused was the news that his daughter, Romian, was still alive, which surprised and delighted him.

Canary III had genuine feelings for Leanna and her daughter. When he learned of their tragic deaths, he was devastated and became increasingly ruthless, venting his anger on the opposition nobles in the country. After years of preparation, he launched a campaign to conquer the Kingdom of Durand.

All these actions were both a response to the expectations of the people throughout the empire and a way to avenge the tragic deaths of his wife and daughters, because the Chancellor and his most trusted advisor, Byrne, had told him that the assassins were members of the opposition nobles and King Durand's men.

For a moment, Canary III really wanted to abandon everything and go find his daughter, Romian, but he suppressed this impulse with reason. He knew that he was no longer an insignificant illegitimate son, but the emperor of the Canary Empire, and his every move affected many people.

So after a moment's thought, Canary III spoke to Jagger.

"Marshal, you can rest assured that I will not issue the order to retreat unless absolutely necessary. However, we need to speak with King Duran in the Yodl Fortress again. Also, give the order that if Master Lud comes again, treat him with the utmost respect and do not neglect him."

"Yes, I understand."

With a heavy heart, Canary III waited for three more days. During this time, Ludwig did not come to visit again. Although their contact with the Second Legion was intermittent, it at least proved that they were still alive.

Just when everyone thought that Lud was just bluffing, a disturbing message suddenly came from within the empire—groups of dragons and monster lords had visited several major cities, including the capital, and scattered a large number of leaflets in the urban areas.

These leaflets were full of "rumors" that the Empire's Northern Expeditionary Army was struggling in the Kingdom of Duran, the Yodl Fortress was unable to be captured, and the Second Army was surrounded by the Duran army, and the situation was already critical.

Along with the leaflets, many tattered military uniforms and Imperial Legion battle flags were also thrown down. Local governors are currently doing their best to collect and destroy the leaflets, while reminding the public not to believe these rumors. The Imperial Legion is invincible, and only the reports from the military headquarters are true and credible.

Besides these leaflets, another major problem causing headaches for the empire was the royal army that had invaded its territory.

This cavalry force, numbering approximately two to three thousand men, was extremely fierce in combat. The weak local security forces were no match for these northern barbarians, suffering heavy losses and abandoning their armor. Consequently, many regions appealed to the imperial central government for assistance, pleading for the rescue of the Fifth Army Corps stationed in the capital. They were the only elite force among the five major army corps remaining on the homeland, and only this unit was capable of confronting the kingdom's cavalry.

However, the prime minister ignored all these requests for help. It wasn't that he didn't want to send troops, but that the Fifth Army Corps had already transferred its cavalry to the Northern Expeditionary Army Corps, leaving only infantry.

How can a two-legged person catch up with a four-legged horse?

However, the Chancellor also knew that he could not allow this Duran cavalry to continue to run rampant within the empire, so he wrote to Canary III, who was far away at the front, requesting that a small squad of three-headed two-legged wyverns be sent back to participate in the encirclement and suppression operation.

After reading the prime minister's letter, Canary III couldn't help but smile wryly. It seemed the prime minister was unaware of the latest news from the front lines. Those dragons were clearly working for Rudd; although bound by the contract they couldn't actively attack human cities, they could passively "defend themselves."

If nothing unexpected happens, that kingdom's cavalry must be protected by a giant dragon. If I really send a wyvern over, it will probably be kidnapped by another dragon that wanders into the battlefield. My precious darlings can't withstand that kind of torment anymore.

Within the Canary Empire, Rodriguez's Northern Cavalry had penetrated at least 300 kilometers into enemy territory, sweeping all before them! They had routed the Imperial local security forces, making it feel like they were in a Musou attack, leaving the knights involved in the battle utterly astonished.

Meanwhile, the local officials in the empire felt like they had the worst luck imaginable. More than 80% of their country's elite forces were fighting in the kingdoms, leaving only the Fifth Army Corps on their homeland, which was only responsible for protecting the capital.

The local governors of the northern counties did not have strong troops at their disposal. After sending out several casualties in their proactive attacks, they all realized that the Duran barbarians were not to be trifled with, so they simply held their cities and refused to come out.

As a result, towns and villages without strong walls to defend suffered greatly. This was not because Rodriguez's troops were burning, killing, and looting everywhere. The Righteous Knights were still very reliable and always strictly disciplined their soldiers, only harassing supply convoys that delivered supplies to the front lines and never targeting ordinary people.

But Rodriguez could control his own soldiers, not the bandits on the empire's own soil.

Because Rodriguez's cavalry had severely damaged the official security forces in the northern counties of the empire, forcing them to retreat to the cities, the security situation outside the cities deteriorated rapidly. Mountain bandits and other outlaws took advantage of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to commit crimes and quickly grow stronger.

However, just as these outlaws were running rampant and thinking they could make a fortune, something they never dreamed of was that the Duran cavalry, who had been relentlessly attacking the Imperial Army, suddenly turned their guns on them, their "allies" who shared a common enemy.

Rodriguez personally led the team and wiped out four bandit groups in three days!

The remaining bandits and outlaws, seeing that this old man was even more ruthless than the imperial soldiers, could only flee back into the mountains in a panic and continue to squat obediently.

Rodriguez's move not only surprised the bandits, but also made the imperial people, who had previously regarded them as "northern barbarians," look at these skilled Duran knights with new respect.

Suddenly, everyone realized that the Duran people in the north weren't as terrifying as the Imperial authorities had always portrayed them to be. Especially their leader, the general—not only was he incredibly skilled in martial arts, but his handsome face was so striking it was almost unbelievable. Many Imperial citizens they rescued surrendered to the enemy at the first glance!

Rodriguez's forces were fighting with great success, his two thousand cavalrymen moving through Imperial territory as if it were nothing. Meanwhile, the Fifth Legion, stationed in the capital, could only watch helplessly, unable to do anything about it.

The commander of the Fifth Army Corps was also helpless. He had been careless and underestimated the enemy, letting his son lead the only mobile force he had to rush into battle. As a result, the entire army was wiped out, and his son even defected to the enemy. The remaining infantry without horses could only sit in the city and stare helplessly.

The empire has no shortage of infantry and still has plenty of horses, but simply combining the two cannot quickly turn them into cavalry. The commander of the Fifth Army Corps himself came from a cavalry unit; he knows how difficult it is to train a qualified cavalryman.

Seeing that the battle at the front was clearly getting tense, and that His Majesty the Emperor, who was personally leading the expedition, could not even allocate a single cavalryman to him, the commander of the Fifth Army Corps felt immense pressure. Therefore, he had no choice but to ask the God of War Cult for help.

The Canary Empire and the Church of War are currently enjoying a honeymoon period of cooperation. The emperor has not only established them as the state religion but has also been baptized as a believer, with the High Priest personally presiding over the baptism. Since the empire has bestowed such great honors upon them, allowing them to reign supreme over another major religion within their own territory, it would be natural for them to reciprocate, wouldn't it?

The Fifth Legion Commander knew that the Church of War had its own Guardian Knights, with a 50-man squad in each branch diocese and a 150-man battalion at the main diocese headquarters. Therefore, throughout the empire, the Church of War had at least a cavalry force of 600 men, along with hundreds of priests and thousands of monks with clergy, not to mention countless followers.

Ironically, the first thing the empire did after Canary I became emperor and initially achieved centralized power was to take back military power from the noble lords in various regions. However, the armed forces of the three major religions were not included in this. As a result, the archbishop now has more troops at his disposal than most of the imperial dukes.

Therefore, the Fifth Legion approached the Archbishop of the Cult of War in the capital and, in an official capacity, requested to borrow troops from him. They hoped to temporarily transfer at least five hundred knights and fifty priests.

Upon learning of the corps commander's intentions, the archbishop initially hesitated and was reluctant to agree. However, just one day later, his attitude underwent a complete 180-degree turn, and he agreed to lend all the guardian knights and fifty priests.

The archbishop admitted that this was the decree of the Supreme High Priest, ordering him to spare no effort in supporting all of the Empire's actions.

"All actions?"

"Yes, all actions."

From the archbishop's reply, the commander of the Fifth Army Corps discerned both the sincerity of the War God Cult and their ambition.

The high-ranking corps commander knew that everything came at a price. He didn't believe the Church of War had no ulterior motives, but he was also overwhelmed by the Durand Knights. Chancellor Goethe kept urging him to come up with an effective solution. If he couldn't resolve the issue before the emperor's triumphant return, the emperor would surely eliminate him.

The corps commander had to admit that these charlatans were incredibly efficient once they got serious. The Knights of the Faith were assembled in just three days, with a total of eight hundred knights gathered from the nine sub-districts and the main temple. Some of them were even urgently transferred from dioceses in neighboring countries.

In some remote areas, knights, in order to save time, even had their accompanying priests use divine magic on their warhorses.

In addition to the forces of the War God Cult, the commander of the Fifth Army Corps also cobbled together three thousand cavalry. After all, the capital was near the horse farm, so the Fifth Army Corps urgently recalled a large number of retired veterans over forty years old and put them back into battle.

With everything prepared, this cavalry regiment, on which high hopes were placed, marched out of the capital in a grand procession.

After the initial panic, the northern prefectures and counties gradually stabilized, especially after receiving the prime minister's approval for conscription quotas, and various regions quickly formed light infantry regiments. The entire northern region had tens of millions of people, and what it lacked least was young and able-bodied men.

The prime minister believed that these infantry regiments might not be able to catch up with the cavalry, but they could compress the enemy's space of operation by advancing step by step, thus giving their own cavalry units an opportunity to take a bite out of the Durans.

The ratio of cavalry to enemy forces was 2:1, and if infantry were included, the ratio would be a full 20:1. This numerical comparison on paper gave the prime minister and the governors of various prefectures and counties great confidence.

No matter how you look at it, the advantage is in my hands!

Just as the Empire was continuously mobilizing heavy troops in an attempt to compress the range of activities of the Knights of the North, Rodriguez, led by several local guides, was continuing south along a secluded mountain path, preparing to take a trip to the Empire's most fertile central plains.

Although the guides who led them were locals, they were not Canary people, the main ethnic group of the empire, but a minority group called the "Lati".

More than a hundred years ago, their ancestors and the land they lived on were independent, but unfortunately, it was too far from heaven and too close to the empire.

After annexing the Principality of Lati, the Canary Empire treated these conquered people as third-class citizens. For over a hundred years, the Lati people have suffered endless humiliation and oppression, and therefore have no loyalty to the empire. The younger generation, whose fighting spirit has not yet been extinguished, regards the Canary people as enemies.

So Rodriguez didn't waste any time recruiting several young hunters familiar with the local terrain from a poor Lati village to be their guides. When they heard they were going to fight the Imperials, they were so enthusiastic they were practically willing to pay to join.

After winning several overwhelming victories with Rodriguez's troops, these young Lati tribesmen idolized the powerful Duran Knights before them.

The reason why the war went so smoothly is naturally multifaceted.

To date, Rodriguez's unit has suffered less than one-tenth of its combat casualties, and the reduction in its combat capability is negligible.

Besides facing relatively weak enemies, they also benefited from ample and uninterrupted logistical supplies. In particular, the unlimited supply of miraculous medicines meant that unless they suffered fatal injuries like "being completely lost" or "being unable to find their rear end," they could be saved as long as they had a breath left, and then continue to beat up the imperialists with great vigor.

Moreover, they were never fighting alone. Behind these two thousand cavalrymen were at least tens of thousands of people and several dragons providing them with full support in terms of intelligence, reconnaissance, and logistics.

This battle has dragged on until now, and not only has the Imperialist's backside been wide open by the drilling machine, but even Rodriguez and his cavalry are surprised that cross-border warfare can be fought so comfortably.

Guided by local guides, the cavalry force took only half a day to bypass several fortresses by taking shortcuts and successfully enter the central plains of the empire.

Looking out over the vast plains that stretched as far as the eye could see after they emerged from the mountain pass, Rodriguez knew that they had successfully entered the heart of the Empire. It was said that the last time this place was invaded and ravaged by war was three hundred years ago during the War of the Gods, when the strongest rat-man empire at the time invaded.

Time flies, and now three hundred years have passed. The Skaven Empire has turned into dust in history, and the Canary Islands have long been accustomed to the comfortable days when only they can invade other countries' lands. The people of the modern Empire probably never dreamed that they would be invaded into their heartland again.

Ron, from Pine Town, stood beside Rodriguez, also staring blankly at the plain. This former village chief's simple-minded son had now been tempered by war into a qualified warrior, rising from apprentice knight to full-fledged knight. After Knight Ados was transferred back to the rear by Lud, he was put in charge of the hundred cavalrymen of Baron Kirk's territory.

Ron, who had once been a farmer, dismounted, grabbed a handful of soil, and muttered in a tone that was a mixture of doubt and suppressed anger.

"These imperialists, they have such good land, why do they still invade our homeland?"

"What else could it be? Greed, of course."

Sharo coldly revealed the truth, then glanced back at the Imperial (gay) guy in the group who stubbornly insisted on following them. Because of this guy's appearance, Sharo had recently been "forced" to get very close to Rodriguez, in order to prevent this guy from betraying his commander.

Suddenly, a shadow fell from the sky, and the red dragon Amy landed in front of Rodriguez, raised her claws and pointed to the east and west directions, speaking to the group.

"There are imperial troops on both the east and west sides at the same time. The eastern side is mainly composed of infantry, numbering about seven or eight thousand, while the western side is composed of cavalry, numbering over a thousand. However... they don't seem to be imperial troops."

Although the dragons are restricted by the contract and cannot directly participate in the battle, this is no problem for Rud, who is good at finding loopholes.

If you can't deal damage, then you can at least play support, right?

So the dragons of SF Express became strategic transport chickens and high-altitude reconnaissance chickens! With them circling overhead as a watchful eye, the Imperial army was often detected from miles away.

Upon learning that Imperial troops were approaching, and in considerable numbers, Rodriguez pondered for a moment and decided to avoid them for the time being. The cavalry force of over a thousand men made him slightly wary; the worst thing in operating behind enemy lines was being discovered and entangled by the enemy.

Under Rodriguez's command, the cavalry regiment decided to outflank the two enemy forces, but the scouts, including Amy, quickly descended and reported that two more imperial armies, each numbering in the tens of thousands, had appeared ahead and formed an encirclement with the previous two forces.

Rodriguez immediately realized that the enemy had most likely known their whereabouts, and that these armies had planned a trap rather than just stumbling upon each other.

Sharo, who shared the same thought, immediately placed his hand on the hilt of his sword at his waist, his gaze shifting back and forth between the gay man and the guides, believing that they were secretly informing the Imperial Army.