Your war hammer is too fake

"I allow it," Nestra stopped her sister who was about to explode, "Go quickly and come back soon. According to mother's order, this is a general mobilization of all forests and all families. Everyone must be ready before the beginning of next spring."

"Thank you for your kindness." Nais bowed deeply to Nestra, and then to Arohan. Soon after the spellcaster walked out of the tent, the resting Skarlock archers took action.

……

Near the camp of the Parawon army, beside an unnamed stream.

Sir Almarik, the "Undead Slayer", walked to the stream alone, knelt on one knee, stared at the clear stream water, and prayed in a low voice to the god he believed in.

The Holy Grail Knights are all living saints of the Lady of the Lake. They do not need to pray as often as ordinary knights, because their every word and action reveals the lady's will and power - at least that's what the prophets say.

The meeting with Egwene made Sir Almarik feel mixed emotions. He didn't know why, but just standing in front of the baroness, he could feel her incomparable holiness and sanctity. Even among the Holy Grail Knights, very few people could possess such a convincing temperament. Such a person was not a Holy Grail Knight, which inevitably made him feel confused.

After confirming the identity of the baroness, Sir Almarik tried to persuade the other side to withdraw his troops. Naturally, his suggestion was rejected without hesitation. The Holy Grail Knight then tried to persuade the other side with faith, but the other side burst out laughing: "Faith? You're talking to me about faith? Do you really know what you believe in?"

Then, the knight came here. Egwene's strange attitude made him vaguely uneasy, but he couldn't tell where the uneasiness came from.

After praying softly for a while and calming his fluctuating emotions, Sir Almarik was about to get up when he saw a pale, slender ribbon emerging from the stream, with a gorgeous long sword (Note 2) wrapped around the soft end of the ribbon.

"Madam..." The Holy Grail Knight exclaimed in a low voice.

……

Note 1: Some elite holy grails have additional blessings in addition to their standard abilities. For example, Almarik has an anti-undead aura, and he can destroy low-level undead just by getting close to them.

Note 2: Sword-of-the-Lady's-Champion, a magical weapon that can only be used by Holy Grail Knights, has a special attack against powerful single targets.

Chapter 205: The Blood of the Knight (Part 1)

If the wood elves' sudden departure without saying goodbye only made the knights call them "cowards", then the burning of food really made the Paraon people crazy - An Jiuyue's order to Nishikori Shige was to destroy the food reserves of the Paraon army as much as possible while giving priority to ensuring his own safety.

Originally, this was not easy to do. Any camp defended by rangers was a nightmare for infiltrators. With Jinzhi Shigeru's ability, he was not blocked by the rangers, but he could not cause much damage. The deputy commander was ready to use the backup plan and poison the Pegasus of the Paraon people, but the Skarlock Archer left at this time.

After calculating the wind direction and wind speed in advance, Shigeru Nishikori used bombs to set eight fire points, all of which were detonated on time around 9 o'clock that evening. As soon as the fire started, the imperial artillery opened fire on the other side: two rocket launcher companies that had received orders in advance raised the slide rails and fired at the fire locations.

The Parawon people, who had had many dealings with the Imperials, were not completely defenseless. Otherwise, they would not have set up their camp three kilometers away from the city and arranged a large number of horsemen to monitor the movements of the Imperials around the clock. They just never thought that there was a solid propellant in this world called nitrosugar.

The development of the nitrate rocket was initiated when the Xuanshui Arsenal was first established. Due to too much work and too few people, and the fact that the Arsenal had too many higher priority projects, this thing was not successfully developed until recently. It would not take so much time to simply mass-produce nitrate, and the main reason is that this thing is extremely easy to absorb water. The Mohists in the Arsenal sacrificed a lot of hair to solve the moisture-proof problem of the nitrate rocket. The first batch of fifty nitrate rockets were taken to Parawon as soon as they came off the production line.

It was An Jiyue who personally transported it here using the clouds.

The Hellstorm Rocket Launcher is a rare unit of the Empire faction, and Aiwen would definitely not use such a precious rare card on this thing. The Knight Ji's system troops only have cannons and mortars, both of which are special units, so they can still be used. The two rocket launcher companies under her were formed by her own efforts. They were formed only a week ago, and they were able to hit the target purely because An Jiyue used magic to buff all the nitrate rockets.

The nitrate version of the fireworks cannon is currently under development. For this purpose, Evelyn has also remotely deployed several imperial engineers to Xuanshui. Once the new technology is lit up, they will manufacture improved Hellstorm rocket launchers on their own and train matching artillery. After the army is formed, they will spend some points to convert them into system units.

Due to the added metaphysical factors, these 150mm caliber unguided rockets were amazingly accurate. The first batch of old farmers who rushed into the fire to try to save the food were immediately blown to pieces by the rockets, and by the way, they also frightened the other old farmers who had not yet taken action. The lower-level knights in charge of guarding the food were so angry that they shouted and kicked the old farmers to force them to put out the fire. Their efforts had just achieved a little success when the next batch of rockets came from afar with a sharp whistle, and the old farmers who were reluctantly moving towards the fire immediately scattered.

By the time several female prophets, whose faces and necks had not been cleaned of kiss marks, rushed over and summoned frost to put out the fire, the Paraon people had lost more than half of their military rations, and the remaining food could only sustain the minimum consumption for five days at most. It was impossible to learn the locust army's "on-the-spot deployment". After conquering Paraon, Egwene had been sending people to sweep the surrounding Bretonnian strongholds for half a month. In the face of the explosive bombs fired by the mortar, the medieval castles of the knights could not hold out for long.

Every time a castle was captured, the seized property belonged to the imperial army, and the food was distributed to the local residents. After distributing the food, Aiwen's men would persuade the local residents to take the food given by the imperial master and escape to the mountains to hide for at least a month. After this period, they could do whatever they wanted.

Throughout the entire process, the imperial army did not use violence to force them, and almost all local residents followed the imperial monarch's request. As for why these Bretonnians were so cooperative...

Aiwen turned her eyes away from the smoky square and glanced at a group of people standing in the corner of the castle's banquet hall. They were wearing full-body armor in the imperial style, and a sky-blue robe embroidered with the Richelieu family's coat of arms over the armor. As a systematic unit, their number was surprisingly small, with only 12 people in a team.

Then, the Knight Princess turned her attention to the "Imperial Army" who were helping to maintain order in the city. Although the Imperial Grand Lord suggested to hide in the mountains, most of the Bretonnian civilians insisted on following, causing the city of Paraon to become overcrowded. Since most of the system soldiers could only speak Rexperre, Egwene could only recruit a group of relatively obedient Bretonnians, and let them do the work of police and auxiliary soldiers while training them.

The bombardment ended quickly. After all, there was only so much ammunition, and it was used up in no time. Since the imperial army had implemented a very thorough defense, the Paraon people could not get supplies from nearby. Once the food supply was cut off, the knights might be able to hold on, but the old farmers they recruited would definitely fall apart on the spot and go out to fend for themselves.

No matter what the original plan was, the Parawon people can only choose to attack by force tomorrow.

……

On the morning of October 2502, 10 Imperial Calendar, Paraon.

"Something seems to be wrong," Evelyn said, "Is the morale of the opponent a little too high?"

"I feel the same way," An Jiyue nodded. "There was such a big commotion last night. The people of Parawong must know that they are running out of food. The knights are fine, but why are even the old farmers so motivated?"

The Paraon army has about 20,000 soldiers, including 900 knights, the rest are all old farmers, and there are hundreds of ogre mercenaries. As long as they maintain sufficient food supply and pay commissions on time, the ogre mercenaries are the most reliable fighters. After all, their intelligence level does not allow them to play such difficult jobs as eating the previous one and eating the next one; but once the money of the ogres is in arrears, especially if the ogres are not fed well, these fat guys will turn against them without hesitation.

The defending imperial army had about 7,000 men, mainly spearmen and musketeers, supplemented by imperial knights and artillery. Since Paraon was a typical medieval city, its walls could not be used to deploy artillery, so the artillery under Egwene's command was mainly mortars, and only cannons were deployed on a few flat-topped towers that originally housed catapults.

It's not that Egwene can only take out these troops, but the scale of Paraon is not large. There are only so many troops on the gentle slope south of the city. There will be no place to stand if there are more. As for the reserve troops, the anchor points have been taken down anyway, so they can be recruited on the spot if needed. Recruiting them in advance will cost an extra ration, which will make the already crowded city even more crowded.

Early in the morning of that day, the hungry old farmer and the knight, whose food standard had not declined at all, left the camp and headed for the city that originally belonged to them. One kilometer away from the city, the Paraon people, who had fought against the imperial army for the first time, stopped and began to transform from marching formation to battle formation.

——Contrary to stereotypes, although the knights of Bretonnia emphasize personal bravery, they are not a mob of brave men. They are indeed not as good as the imperial knights who live and train together all year round in terms of teamwork, but they are definitely not the noble ones in medieval Europe; it is the infantry of Bretonnia that are really weak and miserable.

In parentheses, except for the Hidden Man who only exists in the background setting.

Under the scolding of the lower knights, 20,000 old farmers slowly arranged themselves in a slightly concave arc formation, or in other words, a reversed Queyue formation. Behind the formation were some field trebuchets in spare parts, which were carried forward by the old farmers. Unlike the trebuchets used by other races, the Bretonnians' field trebuchets could not be moved, so they were usually in a scattered state and assembled when needed, and the ammunition was often made from local materials.

On a small hillside further behind the catapults, the knights gathered together, ready to launch a thunderous charge at any time. The mounted attendants were scattered on both wings and the rear of the Paraon army, alert to possible ambushes.

As for the ogres, these fat guys will be the first to go into battle under the cover of the old farmer. The Duke has promised them that they can enjoy the corpses on the battlefield, and they can eat the imperials whether they are dead or alive.

After the deployment was completed, the Duke ordered the attack.

Chapter 206: Knight's Blood (Part 2)

Before the attack began, the Parawong people knelt down and prayed according to tradition.

In Warhammer, a world of never-ending warfare, the true foundation of the knight kingdom of Bretonnia is neither the so-called chivalry nor the powerful but rare Holy Grail Knights, but the blessing of the Lady of the Lake - as long as a prayer is offered before the battle begins, all knights, prophetesses and saints will receive this powerful gift.

The effect of the Lake God's Blessing is simple and practical: it can form a protective force field that is invisible to the naked eye, protecting the recipient from attacks. The effect of the Lake God's Blessing is not exaggerated. It can effectively protect against attacks from most individual weapons, whether it is a sword, spear, arrow or lead bullet, it will be deflected or bounced by the sacred energy around the recipient's body, but it generally cannot protect against heavy firepower.

In most cases, the Lake God's Blessing could only resist the muskets. Except for some rare cases, the knights could not even withstand the heavy shotgun shells fired by the Hell Blasters, let alone the cannons.

The real power of the Lake Goddess's Blessing lies in the fact that any knight can obtain this gift. As long as a Bretonnian knight believes in the Lake Goddess and swears to abide by the spirit of chivalry, he can obtain the blessing of the goddess through pre-battle prayer. As for whether this belief is truly pious, it is not important.

No matter how pious the common people of Bretonnia are, they will never be blessed by the goddess... unless your name is Ramise de Lionesse.

Of course, there is a special case here, which is the Holy Grail Knight. The Holy Grail Knight is the living saint of the Goddess of the Lake. The blessing of the Goddess of the Lake on them is a permanent effect, and there is no need to pray.

Despite this, the 23 Holy Grail Knights, including Sir Almarik, still took the lead in dismounting, kneeling on one knee and praying to the gods they believed in. When Sir Almarik appeared in front of the lords who were furious because of the burning of food, holding the Lake God's Champion Sword, even the most unruly Knight of Parraon, after a brief moment of surprise and astonishment, did not hesitate to lower his proud head to show respect.

"Lady, appear before me!" the Holy Grail Knight said loudly, "We will fight the evil in Her name!"

All the Parraonians present, regardless of their status, cheered because of this, and even the hungry old farmers forgot their hunger and complaints for a moment, and vowed to fight for the lady. No one noticed the hesitation under Sir Almarik's confident face, not even himself.

Inspired by the miracle, the morale of the Paraon people was greatly boosted and they began to attack. Due to the limited battlefield space, the Duke divided the old peasants into three roughly equal parts. The old peasants in the middle began to advance first amid the sound of horns and shouts. The imperial people, who were lined up with their backs against the city wall, had no reaction to this. It was not until the old peasants had crossed the center line of the battlefield that the imperial artillery suddenly opened fire.

The four teams of mortars deployed behind the city wall lit their fuses one by one. Amidst the dull roar, black dots visible to the naked eye shot up into the sky, and then drew an arc under the call of gravity, falling straight down along the trajectory that had been repeatedly calculated, and accurately smashed into the moving old farmers. A series of explosions sounded, and the round explosive bombs were detonated by the wooden tube fuses. The shock waves and cast iron fragments swept through the ranks of the Paraon infantry, and the old farmers fell down in groups like wheat harvested by a sickle.

The old farmers were unmoved, and they flooded over the gentle slope like a muddy mountain torrent. Palaon was built on the mountain, and there was a gentle slope between it and the fertile soil at the foot of the mountain. Going up the gentle slope, although the slope did not change much, it became narrower and narrower as you went up, which also prevented the Palaon infantry from rushing up, because the open space in front of the city wall could not accommodate so many people.

Six thousand imperial infantrymen lined up under the city wall, with one thousand musketeers holding flintlock rifles, standing in a thin horizontal line in the front row, and behind them was a thick square formation of five thousand spearmen. Under the command of several engineering masters, the mortars behind the city wall continued to fire at a standard rate of fire, and explosive shells kept hitting the old peasants' ranks, gouging out a few bloody blanks in the crowd.

The power of religion was clearly revealed at this moment. Even though the gifts of the Lady of the Lake had never been bestowed upon the peasant class, the Paraon infantrymen still advanced fanatically, completely ignoring the huge casualties they suffered in the process of approaching the city walls.

When the old farmer in the front row was still hundreds of meters away from the Imperial phalanx, the musketeers pulled the trigger in unison.

As a "Bretonnian", Aiwen is still learning how to command the imperial army with its ever-changing tactics and emphasis on the coordination of arms, so the actual person in charge of the command is An Jiyue, and all tactical arrangements are made by the Jiedushi. In addition to the system units from the War Codex, the Jiedushi also did not forget to make full use of the ready-made resources.

For example, the "Imperial Army" and the Han people who voluntarily surrendered.

When the imperial musketeers opened fire, the covert men deployed on the city walls released their bowstrings at the same time. Dense arrows flew into the air, passing over the heads of the imperial infantry and splashing into the ranks of the Parawon people. The old farmer who had just been "scraped" by the lead bullets was then shot down by arrows of a very familiar shape. Many Parawon people stared in disbelief, and some even cursed at the top of the city wall in their hometown dialect, unable to understand why these Robin Hoods would help foreigners fight.

The Hidden Trace Men ignored the curses and rebukes and continued to shoot arrows at the city. Unlike the "Imperial Army", the Hidden Trace Men came here purely to repay their gratitude. When Egwene sent people to sweep the surrounding area, she also chopped up the greenskins and beastmen who took advantage of the fire to loot, and distributed food and clothes to the old farmers. In this process, the Imperial Lords did not realize that some of the "old farmers" they rescued were not actually old farmers.

The Imperial Lady neither robbed her fellow villagers of their things nor their daughters, and she even helped them. All these actions made the Imperial people unintentionally win a group of strange allies for themselves.

The Paraon infantrymen, caught in the crossfire, could only curse and continue to advance with their crude weapons. When they approached a certain distance despite the casualties, the opposing musketeers, under the command of several imperial captains, put away their weapons and trotted away from the front, revealing the spearmen in the back who were ready for battle.

Wearing heavy armor, holding war hammers, with hard-shell scriptures hanging on iron chains around their waists and metal headbands on their bald heads, the battle priests walked back and forth between the companies, inspiring the morale of the imperial soldiers with inspiring speeches. When the enemy approached, these servants of God King Sigmar recited excerpts of scriptures loudly, blessing the spearmen's weapons with [Soul Flame].

The surging crowd stopped for a moment in front of the orderly Imperial phalanx. The chaotic Parraon infantry pushed each other to stop, and some people with bows and arrows squeezed forward. They were often shot by the hiding men on the wall as soon as they showed their heads. Only some people could randomly throw arrows at the Imperial positions without any accuracy. Then, the old farmers who used melee weapons shouted and charged, crashing into the shield wall connected end to end.

The imperial spearman placed his shield on the ground, leaned his left shoulder against the shield, and lowered his body slightly. The next moment, all kinds of weapons hit the oak shield with the emblem of the Reikland, and the sound of stabbing and chopping became one. The flat shield wall retreated a few steps under the push of the crowd. After the imperial soldiers withstood this momentum, there was a slight gap between the shields, and the spears, whose tips had become red hot under the blessing of divine magic, stabbed out fiercely, biting into the flesh like a poisonous snake waiting for an opportunity.

The sergeants shouted loudly: "Forward! For the Empire, for Sigma!"

"Huh~" The spearman took a deep breath, then exhaled and said: "Ha!!"

The back row pressed against the front row, the front row pressed against the shields, the shield wall slowly pressed forward, and the spears continued to thrust out, withdraw, and thrust out again from the gaps between the shields. Each of their strikes was aimed at the chest or throat of a Paraon, while they used their shields to shield each other and block the enemy's counterattacks. Blocking, attacking, and advancing, the things under the spearmen's feet soon changed from hard earth to soft human bodies, dead or alive Paraons covered the ground, and those who could still stand were squeezed back by the spearmen.

When the casualties of the Paraon people exceeded a certain limit, their fanatical beliefs were finally shattered by the terrible reality. The old farmers cried and dropped their weapons, turning around and running away without caring about anything. Seeing this, the spearmen were about to chase them, but an order issued through the mental network stopped them. The imperial phalanx, which had already loosened up, once again returned to the strict state before the battle under the orders of the sergeants and imperial captains.

On the small hill at the other side of the battlefield, the Duke, who was about to order a charge, couldn't help but grit his teeth.

"Send people to gather up those fleeing rubbish... Kill the fastest serfs," the Duke said angrily, "Let the serfs on the left wing take over! Also, get the troops on the right wing ready."

Chapter 207: The Knight's Blood (Part 2)

The Parawongs then launched a second and third round of attacks.

Due to the lack of width on the battlefield, the Parraonians could only deploy one-third of their infantry each time, climbing the slope to attack the well-rested Imperials. The Bretonnian infantry was inferior to their Imperial counterparts in terms of training, equipment, and morale. The battlefield environment also limited their numerical advantage, and they had to endure mortar bombardment while climbing the slope. Due to various factors, the second round of Parraon infantry also did not last long and were driven back.

The Duke was unmoved by this and continued to send in the third and final batch of infantry. As the old farmers shouted "For the Lady!" and rushed up the gentle slope covered with broken limbs and charred craters, dozens of Pegasus knights took off into the air after a short run, circling and climbing to the same height as the top of Paraon.

At the same time, led by the Duke himself, the Parraon knights mounted their horses, drove their horses down the hill, and slowly approached the gentle slope. The old farmers in charge of operating the field catapults carried various parts, hid behind the third group of attacking old farmers, and then began to assemble the catapults at the pre-selected locations.

Through the first two groups of old farmers' tests, the Paraon people have confirmed that the imperialists have not set up traps in front of the defensive positions. Although the landslide is not conducive to the charge, it is nothing to the knights of Bretonnia. More than 800 knights gradually formed a thick cone formation while moving, and the arrow was the Duke himself.

Several female prophets and their apprentices were guarded in the center of the cone formation. These brave ladies who served the goddess of the lake also rode on war horses to participate in the charge. They would use their own magic to support the knights, and with the help of the magic resistance aura given by the goddess, they would help the knights resist the influence of unclean witchcraft. If necessary, they would also draw their swords to kill the enemy.

The first to encounter setbacks were the Pegasus Knights who tried to storm the artillery positions. When these air knights, the pride of the Principality of Paraon, approached the city from the air, An Jiyue, who was standing on the highest tower in the city watching the battle, thought for a while, and then issued an order through the mental network. After obtaining authorization from Aiwen herself, An Jiyue temporarily gained access to the mental network of the faction to which the Knight Ji belonged, and under normal circumstances, the mental networks of each faction were independent of each other.

In the largest square in the city, four teams of mortars were still firing non-stop. A little behind the artillery position, accompanied by the crisp sound of horseshoes stepping on the stone bricks, two armored war horses pulled a Haofeng magic vehicle slowly out of its hiding place. When the entire magic vehicle was completely immersed in the sun, the trainee wizard in charge of driving stopped the vehicle.

On the second floor of the magic vehicle, a battle wizard of the heaven department raised his head thoughtfully. As spellcasting lords of the empire faction, all battle wizards can ride ordinary war horses or flying horses, while the beast, light and heaven department wizards have additional mounts to choose from.

Among them, the beast-type wizard can ride the Imperial Griffin, the light-type wizard can ride the Light Magic Vehicle, and the heaven-type wizard can ride the Haofeng Magic Vehicle.

Both the Light and Wind Magicians are rare units of the Empire, and they are indeed worth a rare card in terms of their function. When Egwene checked her bloodline before, she spent all the points she earned in the Battle of Mordheim at once and successfully drew a rare card, but unfortunately that card had already been reserved for a purpose and could not be used to recruit Magicians; fortunately, the Knight Princess had other options, such as using the Lord Card she drew to recruit a Heavenly Archmage or something.

The Archmage raised his staff, and the celestial globe behind him, which was larger than his entire body, began to slowly rotate. Among the attacking Bretonnians, the first to notice the abnormality were the female prophets. The most powerful female prophet immediately chanted a spell, trying to break the spell that was taking shape. The female prophet almost immediately realized that this was a wrong decision. When she concentrated her attention and extended her mind to influence the wind of magic, a boundless and huge existence was reflected in the female prophet's magical senses.

The prophetess was unable to issue any warning to her companions, and even her facial expression did not have time to change. Her beautiful head, which still retained its charm, exploded like a watermelon run over by a half-hanging stone, and brains and broken bones splattered all over her colleagues around her.

On the other side, with the help of Haofeng Mocheng, the great wizard quickly completed his spell. The rapid flow of Egil, the wind of heaven, broke the calmness of the sky, and a hurricane formed beside the Pegasus Knights. The violent airflow instantly disrupted the flying posture of the Pegasus, throwing these smart beasts from the Gray Mountains and the riders on their backs away.

The Duke saw clearly how his vassal was killed. The blessing of the lake god was not enough for a person to survive a fall from a height of two hundred meters, at least the people of Parawon were not able to witness such a miracle.

The explosive shells continued to fall, but retreating to regroup was unrealistic. The poor organization of the old farmer did not allow the Paraon people to do so. The cone formation began to accelerate, struggling tenaciously against the potential energy. The few cannons on the city wall opened fire, but the shells stopped abruptly when they were still some distance away from the knights, and finally fell harmlessly to the ground.

"Flag of Defense (Note 1)? You are really well prepared," An Jiyue raised her eyebrows, "It seems that I can have one more item in my collection."

Duke Paraon himself rode in the front, followed closely by the paladin holding a battle flag embroidered with a simple chain pattern. Although the horses were running as hard as they could, they still couldn't speed up.

Behind them, the Battle Mage summoned lightning bolts one after another, which fell from the sky and struck the field catapults that were still being assembled. An Jiyue would not ignore the potential threat of these weapons just because they looked primitive. After all, the Bretonnian catapults did have some metaphysical bonuses, so they could be installed on ships for naval battles.

In front of the more than 800 Parraon knights, the third group of old farmers who joined the battle were also defeated. The knights were not surprised at all. They shouted "For the lady!" and rushed into the shield wall of the imperialists.

The spear companies standing in the front row disappeared under the horses' hooves in the blink of an eye. Even though the terrain caused the Parraon Knights to be unable to charge quickly, they were blessed by the Lake God and still smashed the first line of the Empire. The knights rushed through the spearmen's ranks, stabbing with lances, slashing with swords, and swinging with chain hammers. The white uniforms of many Empire soldiers were soon stained red with their own blood.

An Jiyue watched all this indifferently. During this time, Aiwen showed an expression of wanting to say something but stopping herself more than once, but every time the knight's eyes fell on the Jiedushi's expressionless face, she would immediately swallow back what she wanted to say.

"Keep calm. This is the first lesson you need to learn as a commander," the Taoist priest said. "Also, trust your soldiers and believe that they can do it."

It was not until the front row of ten or so companies had lost nearly half of their men that they finally received the order to retreat. The spearmen in the back row immediately raised their shields in their left hands and spears in their right hands, shouting and rushing forward to meet the enemy. The fresh troops passed through the comrades who had been fighting hard for a while, and stabbed the enemies on horseback with their spears. The spearmen companies that had suffered heavy casualties then leaned sideways to squeeze back through the gaps left by their comrades, breaking away from contact with the Palaon knights.

The knights continued to perform bravely, but they gradually began to suffer casualties. The Lake God's Blessing was not invulnerable, and each attack from the enemy would weaken the holy energy that filled the knight's body. This holy energy could be replenished automatically, but if they were attacked continuously in a short period of time, the Lake God's Blessing would still be penetrated.

The battle between the imperial soldiers and the Parraon knights was a curved line at first, then slowly turned into an arc. The knights were like a ball of minced meat gradually wrapped in dough. No matter how many enemies they cut down, they would only sink deeper. As the battle progressed, sporadic musketeers appeared in the ranks of the spearmen. They raised their flintlocks and pulled the trigger less than five meters away from the target.

Gunshots rang out, and the Lake God's Blessing, which had been weakened a lot in the fierce battle, was immediately pierced by lead bullets. Some of the targeted Paraon knights fell on the spot, while others did not. Some knights angrily tried to squeeze over and deal with these "serfs" who used long-range weapons on the battlefield, but more musketeers immediately emerged from the spearmen in the back row.

Outside the battlefield, 184 Ugor cavalry archers who had been waiting for a long time gathered from all directions and shot the mounted attendants off their horses with their precise cavalry archery skills. These people came from the southern state of Kislev (see Chapter ), and after many twists and turns, they successfully joined the Zhendan royal army. An Jiyue didn't want these people, so she recommended them to Ewen, who was extremely short of light cavalry - pistol cavalry and pioneer cavalry were both special units of the empire, but the problem was that special units had everything else they wanted, so why did they have to have you?

You should know that the invincible chicken is also a special unit.

The Wugor people had no problem with this, since they were fighting for the people anyway. For these unfortunate people whose land had been seized and who had nowhere to seek justice, as long as the price offered by Egwene was right, they did not mind pledging allegiance to this "Boye Master".

Knight Ji didn't do anything too complicated. She just paid them military pay and supplies according to the standard of pistol cavalry, and promised that after she took office in Goose City, she would find a suitable place in the suburbs of the city for them to settle down. Then, this group of poor Wuguer (Note 2) became Aiwen's most loyal subordinates besides the system units.

Although the mounted attendants had an advantage in numbers, their horsemanship and archery skills were not comparable to those of the Wuguer people, a nation on horseback, even if they were a group of Wuguer people who had transformed to an agricultural lifestyle. Not only that, the mounted attendants were also at a disadvantage in terms of mounts. Although the Wuguer grassland horses were considered cheap war horses, they were still war horses after all, and could not be compared to the farm horses ridden by the mounted attendants.

The two light cavalry units with similar equipment but completely different styles fought for only a moment, and the Ugors, eager to show off in front of their new boss, gained the upper hand and beat the horse attendants who were three times their number. The Parawon people soon realized that shooting was extremely disadvantageous to them, but when they tried to rush forward and drag the enemy into close combat to take advantage of their numbers, the Ugors whistled and turned around and ran away. No matter how the horse attendants whipped their mounts, they could not catch up with the Ugors' grassland horses.

The mounted squires were at a loss for what to do in this battle. Some tried to get more specific orders from their lords, while others chased after them without thinking. The latter soon returned with bad news: more enemies were approaching!

Before the battle began, Aiwen recruited an additional infantry and cavalry unit according to An Jiyue's request, and ordered them and the Ugor people to stand by outside the reconnaissance range of the Parawon people. When the battle started, this unit immediately rushed back and appeared behind the Parawon army at the most appropriate time.

The old peasants who had been defeated by the Imperials and had taken a lot of effort to gather together by the Knights did not put up much resistance and chose to kneel down and surrender. Some of the mounted attendants tried to break through, but they were intercepted and killed by the Ugors.

The knights calmly accepted the reality that they were in a desperate situation. If it were any other human army, when faced with the current situation, the only and best choice would be to turn their horses around and fight their way out of the siege to plan for the future - but the proud knights of Bretonnia would never do that.

They were surrounded, but they were fearless. Even at this point, the Parawon people still tried to tear through the Imperial defense line. As far as objective facts are concerned, they did it. When the 19 surviving Holy Grail Knights gathered together and charged with Sir Almalik holding the Lake God's Champion Sword as the spearhead, the Imperial soldiers in front of them suddenly dispersed and let them pass through their positions. When other Parawon people wanted to catch up, the gaping formation quickly closed.

No one attacked the Holy Grail Knights, not yet. In front of them was the main gate of Paraon. Under the gaze of the living saints, the heavy reinforced gate slowly opened, and 12 silent imperial knights rode out.