A Tale of Strategies For the Throne

More than four months have passed since Aaron Landis's army invaded the territory of Kanal. Kehos's first army came from the northeast and Heimos's third army came from the southeast to attack Kanal's territory. The royal city approaches.

Their marching route was an arc around the land of Kanal, and after attacking important cities one after another, they slowly approached the royal city.

At the same time, in Aaron Landis, more than half a year had passed since Garlan established the Trade Office in the Royal City.

In the past six months, the Trade and Commerce Department has not only existed in the Royal City, but has been established in Tozes and other large cities where commerce is the main economic pillar.

The powerful people in large commercial cities, that is, the original vested interests, are naturally unwilling to lose this lucrative financial path.

However, the situation was completely different from when the Trade and Commerce Department was established in the Royal City. After seeing the benefits of the Trade and Commerce Department, businessmen in these big cities that focus on commerce are almost eagerly awaiting the establishment of the Trade and Commerce Department. . They even took the initiative to contribute money and effort to help, hoping to build the Trade and Commerce Office as soon as possible.

Moreover, the large cities that Garlan selected as pilot projects to promote the Trade and Commerce Department were all cities directly affiliated with the royal city, and the current consuls were all upright officials who were specially selected by him to be loyal to him.

The most important thing is that this time there is also the escort of Shamash Temple and Nanna Temple.

In order to prove their abilities to King Garlan and overwhelm the other temple as much as possible, the two major temples carefully selected extremely capable chief priests to go to those big cities and sit in the local temples to take charge of the distribution of the Trade Department. Belongs to power.

No matter how powerful the local officials are, they will never dare to make mistakes when facing these high-status priests.

After all, priests are messengers of the gods.

It won't be possible tomorrow.

But there is no hope in coming secretly.

Because, even if they want to do something secretly, they still have to ask the priest of Nanna, who is best at making intrigues, whether he will agree.

The establishment of these trade offices has brought countless wealth to Garlan. It is no exaggeration to say that he is making money every day.

This huge wealth is enough for Garlan to build roads, Solga's Temple of Wisdom, water conservancy and other infrastructure, and at the same time, it is more than enough to support the military expenses of the army attacking Karnar.

This is also the main reason why this battle lasted for so long, and except for a few die-hard peace factions, the ministers in the royal court had no objections.

Many ministers felt that.

King Garlan is really a wise king.

Not only did he pay for the construction of infrastructure out of his own pocket, but even the military expenses were not funded by the royal court's finances, they were all paid by himself.

You know, over the years, military expenditures accounted for almost a quarter of the royal court's annual financial expenditures. In the past, Aaron Landis was very financially strapped because of the huge military expenditures consumed by King Camos on his year-round campaigns.

The financial secretary who takes office has to rack his brains every year to balance the costs of all parties, so he is bald with worry.

Now, with such a large amount of money saved, many other things can be done. The upright ministers headed by Secretary Zuo are naturally very happy, and the current Financial Secretary, who does not have to worry about being bald like his predecessor, is also happy.

However, there are also some thoughtful people who understand it secretly.

From then on, military expenditures were no longer paid from the royal treasury, but from the king's treasury.

In other words, the rise and fall of Aaron Landis's army is completely controlled by King Garlan. King Garlan can completely control the combat effectiveness of a legion based on the amount of military expenditure.

After all, soldiers' food and drink, soldiers' armor, weapons, residences, training grounds, and even fortresses and castles all cost money.

If any legion wants to rebel, King Garlan can directly destroy more than half of its combat effectiveness as long as it cuts off its military expenditure.

The most important thing is that from now on, even if the powerful ministers in the royal court have evil intentions, their threat will be greatly reduced - what can they do without soldiers?

The food, drink, weapons and armor of the soldiers were all given to them by King Garlan. King Garlan is equivalent to their food and clothing parents. Who is mentally ill to follow you and rebel against their food and clothing parents?

Therefore, in this way, the lifeblood of all the armies was controlled by King Garlan.

Taking this expedition to Karnar as an opportunity, not only the six legions directly under the royal city, but also in the next year, Garlan gradually abolished the practice of "supporting the army that guards the city with the city's own taxes".

All military expenditures for armies in cities directly under the royal city are paid from the king's treasury.

Those cities inherited by families still continue to follow the past practice and do not force it - of course, there are some city owners who are greedy for cheap and are unwilling to spend military expenses themselves, and as long as they make a request to King Garlan, the rich and kind-hearted young king will He would be gracious enough to say yes.

Under Gallan's various hidden proddings, Aaron Landis's centralized progress bar was slowly and silently extending backwards.

——Yes, if you have money, you can do whatever you want.

The young king, who was praised as the wise king in later generations, had more than once expressed such emotions in his heart that were extremely inconsistent with the values ​​​​of "xianming".

…

Back to business.

After more than four months, Aaron Landis's two armies unceremoniously approached the royal city of Kanal.

A month ago, seeing the defeat of the war, the commander of the Gastad people had made a decisive decision to abandon other cities and shrink his troops to garrison the royal city.

The noble city lords who had surrendered to the Gastad people without hesitation saw the Gastad people retreating steadily. When Aaron Landis's army approached the city, they decisively opened the door and surrendered again.

They offered no resistance at all.

These shameless city lords don't care who they surrender to. Anyway, they just change their allegiance. They can still continue to be their own noble city lords.

They didn't know what was waiting for them at this time.

At this time, Heimos and Kehos had joined forces under the royal city of Karnar.

This royal city was originally built by the first king of Karnar. That king spent his military life and went through many hardships before finally creating his own kingdom.

At that time, the situation on the mainland was changing and it was very unstable. Therefore, he built the royal city under the cliff.

The royal city is backed by high mountain cliffs that tower into the sky. It is in the shape of a sloping ladder from top to bottom. The walls on the other three sides are extremely tall and strong.

The river surrounding the royal city flows down from the cliffs, and there is no fear that the enemy troops attacking the city will cut off the water source from the outside.

The first king of Kanal believed with satisfaction that such a royal city that was easy to defend and difficult to attack would never fall easily.

Unfortunately, this brave and powerful king could not have guessed that hundreds of years of comfort would completely change his descendants.

This impregnable royal city easily fell into the hands of the invaders.

…………

After a year and a half, the battle for the royal city of Karnal began again.

The former aggressor becomes the attacked party.

The commander of Gastad stood on the high city wall, frowning and looking down at the outside of the city.

Outside the royal city, there is a black and red torrent.

The army of Aaron Landis in black and red armor surrounded this huge city.

They were like a monstrous flood, surging over the sky and hitting the city wall again and again.

Under the scorching sun, on the battlefield, a knight in black armor stood tall on the ground.

The horse's mane beneath him was like fire burning in the sun.

The lion flag with red background and gold pattern was flying high behind him, bathed in the scorching sun, like a red flame burning with golden brilliance.

One person and one horse stand among thousands of troops, but they are unusually conspicuous.

It's like the only strong color in a black and white picture.

He just stood there on horseback, and no one could ignore his presence.

Black Knight Heimos.

His reputation is unknown to all.

Wherever he goes, there is victory.

The soldiers under his command are all brave men who are like wolves and tigers, fearless of death. As long as he gives an order, they will tear into pieces any enemy who dares to stand in front of them.

The commander of Gastad stared at Heimos from the city wall with a solemn expression.

Today is the third day that Aaron Landis’ army came to the city.

The Gastad people have reinforcements and are coming from the northwest day and night, but it will take some time to reach the royal city of Kanal.

He once thought that with the strength of the Gastad people, it would be no problem to shrink all the troops into the royal city and hold it for ten days and a half.

But just three days later, he began to feel anxious.

In just three days, the fighting had already begun to intensify.

The Gastadians are good at attacking, but are not used to passive defense. Even he is defending the city for the first time.

If this continues, I'm afraid we won't be able to sustain the arrival of reinforcements.

The commander of Gastard frowned and thought so.

At this moment, noisy shouts came from the city wall, and many Gastad soldiers shouted and pointed outside.

The commander-in-chief looked up amidst the shouts of the crowd, and his throat suddenly tightened.

The huge siege engine slowly appeared in front of the city wall of the Royal City of Karnar.

At the same time, catapults and giant crossbows and arrows that were five or six meters high also appeared in front of everyone.

It took more than two days for Aaron Landis' army craftsmen to finally assemble these siege weapons and send them to the foot of the city wall.

Heimos sat on his horse and slowly raised his hand.

Then, swing down hard.

The next second, amid the panicked shouts of the Gastad people on the city wall, huge rocks roared over and hit the city wall heavily.

A giant crossbow arrow that was only as tall as a man drew an arc in the air, swooped down, and penetrated the bodies of several guards at once, forming a gourd.

The walls of the royal city of Karnar may seem tall, but they are not as strong as they appear from the outside.

Under the impact of the boulders, countless rubbles rolled down the city wall, and cracks began to appear in many places.

The edges of several city walls even collapsed directly under the impact of boulders, causing the soldiers standing there to fall down from the high city walls and fall into pieces.

The other soldiers were so shocked that they subconsciously backed away, fearing that they would follow in his footsteps.

This time, many soldiers died, and the Gastad people suffered heavy casualties.

Looking at the chaotic situation on the city wall, Gastad's commander showed a fierce expression.

He turned around and gave a few cold instructions to a subordinate next to him.

…………

Countless slings and giant crossbow arrows rained down on the walls of Kanal, boosting the morale of Aaron Landis's army for a moment.

Suddenly, there was a strange movement on the city wall.

Aaron Landis's soldiers were shocked to see that the Gastad soldiers on the city wall took the initiative to retreat and hid behind them, as if they had completely given up resistance.

The general in charge of commanding the siege equipment waved his hand and temporarily stopped throwing stones and shooting arrows to avoid meaningless waste.

However, even when the pelting of stones and the rain of arrows stopped, the city walls were silent and there was no trace of the Gastad people.

Just when everyone was wondering, another figure finally appeared on the city wall.

The general who commanded the siege equipment raised his hand and planned to continue the attack.

But the next moment, his hand froze in mid-air.

He stared blankly at the figure on the city wall with an expression of disbelief.

At this moment, what appeared on the city wall and in front of General Aaron Landis were figures who were tied up and pushed to the edge of the city wall.

Those people have skin color, hair color and appearance that are very different from the Gastad people.

Aaron Landis.

Those former Aaron Landis soldiers who were captured by the Gastards after their defeat and brought to the Royal City of Kanal and became slaves.

They were tied up and pushed against the city wall by the Gastards.

If the Aaronlanders wanted to continue their attack on the city, they would have to kill them first and kill their own countrymen.

There was dead silence on the earth.

The huge battlefield was completely silent at this moment.