Chapter 885 [0882] Darius's Difficult Decision

After the vanguard was dispatched, the Demacia army moved very quickly.

When supplies along the way were not a problem, relying on the large livestock trailers and the water transportation advantages of the Yiming River in some areas, the Demacia Northern Expedition's daily march distance once exceeded 200 miles.

Considering the poor level of roads between the principalities and city-states of Valoran, as well as the method of carrying baggage and purchasing part of the supplies locally, this marching speed can be called a miracle.

For the people of Valoran's principalities, they only saw Demacians whizzing by on nearby roads, or passing like the wind in unseen boats on the Yiming River.

The novelty came and went quickly.

But these fell into the eyes of the rulers of the principalities and city-states along the way, and they were stunned for a moment - although Demacia's regular army has always been the strongest elite in Runeterra in their impression, but from now on Judging from the situation, these Demacians seem to be a bit too elite.

Moreover, many people have vaguely discovered that these Demacia armies seem to be somewhat different from their own army. The specific differences are unclear because the contact time is relatively short, but in short they are completely different.

These principalities and city-states of Valoran have always had various political and economic exchanges with Demacia in the past. Even Demacia's tournaments will invite them as guests to watch the battles, and elite soldiers will also perform drills before the tournaments.

Most of the soldiers who participated in the drill were from minor aristocrats, and all of them were proficient in bow and horse—not only were they skilled in riding skills and good at using a variety of weapons, but they also often had good cultural qualities.

Although most of the principality and city-states of Valoran are envious of such an army, to be honest, everyone is just envious. Everyone knows that only Demacia can produce such an army.

Those are all elites made of money.

Since the establishment of New Demacia, Lux has always focused on internal affairs and not paid much attention to diplomacy with the Principality of Valoran. Therefore, these principality city-states were not aware of the huge changes in Demacia. In their eyes, Demacia is still the same Demacia.

But now, this Northern Expeditionary Army is hugely different from the Demacia elite they knew before.

They pay more attention to discipline and integrity - not the "I know everything, so I can cooperate in all aspects" discipline and integrity like the elites of old Demacia, but seem to specialize in certain aspects from the beginning. Cultivated.

These soldiers were incredibly proficient in areas that many locals couldn't understand, but outside of their professional fields, they didn't look like nobles at all.

Although in terms of speech and behavior, their cognitive level seems to be no different from the small nobles and down-and-out nobles in the past, they do not seem to care much about their noble honor.

For the rulers of the principality and city-states of Valoran, they obviously cannot imagine that these people are actually civilians, so after thinking about it, their only answer is "This is a group of down-and-out nobles after the founding of New Demacia." An army that hopes to revitalize the family name."

Maybe their old surnames are closely related to old Demacia, so everyone tacitly agreed not to mention them, right?

Well, that should be the reason.

There is no doubt that this understanding is misplaced - promoting compulsory education and requiring military personnel to at least undergo basic education is completely unthinkable for other countries in Valoran.

In fact, even the military promotion system of old Demacia is actually a bit too advanced for the Principality and city-states of Valoran. The military service system they prefer is to "gather peasants together and issue a uniform when fighting is needed." Spear".

The main reason for this situation is that the Principality and city-states of Valoran are essentially the hunting grounds for competition between Demacia and Noxus. They only need to deal with the initial period of militia fighting. Later, there will be big powers. Come over, either negotiate, or go out in person.

Under this circumstance, Demacia's new army undoubtedly gave the many principalities and city-states of Valoran considerable confidence - from the perspective of marching speed and professionalism, they are obviously no worse than the army of old Demacia, and even Even further!

Considering that Noxus is still divided, and I heard that Demacia is going to build a commercial city near Green Teeth Peak, everyone must move closer to the west!

This is a tangible benefit!

……………………

Demacia's military display was undoubtedly very successful.

Since the rulers of the principality and city-states of Valoran are not very "savvy", they actually don't understand a large part of the skills Lux deliberately displayed.

They don't understand how difficult it is to raise these smaller Erniuks, what kind of drive technology and special feed ratios are required to keep them moving forward continuously.

They also don’t understand how to drill the rotation between passenger trucks, loaded trucks, and unloaded trucks, and how to get on and off the boat fastest when passing through swamps.

Let alone understand what kind of help the cooperating legal guardians provided when passing through the swamps, and why the ships did not run aground in those dangerous tidal flats.

I don’t even know what kind of power these ships, which seem to have a simple structure but can carry heavy loads and move upstream without the help of wind, rely on.

But this did not prevent the local rulers from showing their enthusiasm wherever they went, holding banquets to welcome Lux's arrival, and taking the opportunity to ask about the construction of Yiming City and subsequent trade.

They understand gold coins, trade, and how to use the discord between Demacia and Noxus to get both sides - although this situation will inevitably change in the future, how many people can see that far?

Starting from Greentooth Peak, passing the Old Gate, and then heading east to Nokmochi, the straight-line distance of this road is nearly two thousand miles.

And in this two thousand miles of straight-line distance, the Demacia Northern Expedition Army went through three embarkations and disembarks.

In areas where the Yiming River is deep enough, people, livestock and supplies all go upstream by boat.

In places where the Yiming River is not deep enough, disembarkation relies on the assembled Enuk carts to move forward, and the boats go upstream empty.

In swamps and mudflats, after the law guards harden the swamps, Enuk drags the carts and the boats with wheels on land.

As for the subsequent transportation of materials, special personnel were responsible for establishing resource replenishment points at key points of terrain changes to maintain the stability of the overall logistics supply.

In this way, the vanguard of the Northern Expedition took only fifteen days to reach Nokmochi, and sent a request to Noxus to enter the Black Forest and take the route to Tukugul.

When Darius received the news, he was completely dazed.

After carefully reading every letter of the letter signed by Laxana, he had only one question in his mind.

"Why did the Demacia army appear in Nokmochi at this time?"

This is a very interesting question involving the game between Demacia and Noxus.

Since the establishment of New Demacia, due to the different sizes and focuses of the two sides, the relationship between Demacia and Noxus has gradually eased - the Noxians have no time to stir up trouble, and Lux ​​focuses on internal reforms, and the two sides naturally signed some cooperation treaties.

The essence of these treaties is the division of spheres of influence and peace agreements. As the weaker party, Noxus will inevitably give up many interests.

Among these interests that have been given up, there is the right of passage to the territory.

Did Kalya think of going to Tukugur at that time?

Of course not.

The right of passage to the territory is actually a "common format" in the treaties of various countries, principalities and city-states in Valoran.

Don't forget that the struggle between the principalities and city-states of Valoran is essentially the struggle between Demacia and Noxus, so when the treaty is signed, there must be clauses to guarantee the subsequent control of Demacia or Noxus over a principality or city-state.

And the army can freely pass through a certain territory, which is one of the basic conditions to ensure this control.

After the establishment of New Demacia, the disintegrated Noxus confirmed through various channels that Demacia had no ambition to expand its territory, and chose to lose face and keep the inside, so after the two sides signed the subsequent treaty, Demacia got a lot of power that the Noxians thought was "useless".

Among them is the right of territorial passage.

Noxus has a large territory.

But Noxus and Demacia do not border each other, and the two sides are far apart, so this power is actually useless.

Open the map and take a look. Judging from the situation at that time, Demacia had this power but had no room to exercise it - the Black Forest Federation was still there at that time, and even if it went to Freljord, the Demacia army did not need to pass through Noxus' territory!

However... the situation is different now.

Now that the Black Forest Federation has been dissolved and Tukugul has returned to Noxus' territory, Demacia can exercise this power to go north to Freljord through Tukugul - there is nothing wrong with this in legal terms.

But the question is, what is the goal of Demacia's northward march now?

Help Noxus fight Avarosa?

What a joke!

Although Noxus did not have the news of the Rakstak alliance before, after occupying the city of Fokarodna, the news about Demacia and Avarosa was already on Darius' desk. How could he not know that the two sides had a covenant relationship?

If the Demacians are allowed to pass through Tukugur... wouldn't that mean that Avarosa's reinforcements will come to support?

But if the Demacians are not allowed to pass, it means tearing up the previous peace treaty. Looking at this situation, Darius has no doubt that the Demacians will directly declare war and launch an attack.

For Noxus, the key to solving this problem now is to stop the Demacians before they reach Nokmochi, but it is obvious that this time, because the Noxian intelligence team went to the north to support and Demacia acted too quickly, they missed the best time to solve the problem.

Now more and more Demacia's northern expeditionary forces are gathering in Nokmochi, and a difficult choice is finally placed in front of Darius-whether to agree to Lux's passage and give up the city of Fokarodonna that has already been in hand, so that the prestige of the Noxian Empire will be destroyed; or simply go to war with Demacia, relying on its own local advantages, and fight for an opportunity to change the relationship between the two sides?

After realizing the nature of this decision, Darius found some letters and notes that Katarina sent back to Noxus. In her description, Demacia was a "somewhat strange and unfamiliar country". Everything here was not consistent with her past cognition, but in general it was more powerful.

Obviously, according to Katarina, the two sides should not conflict.

Although Katarina has now changed her surname to Crown Guard, Darius still believes in her judgment - or in other words, she and Garen are together for political reasons in addition to the emotional factors of both sides.

In this case, although Darius was very reluctant, it seemed that it was a more rational choice to give way and let the Demacians go north.

As for the result of doing so, Noxus suffered a huge loss in this battle. Draven gave up the spoils and chose the city of Forkarodna. As a result, the city of Forkarodna would definitely not be saved, which meant that Noxus had worked in vain.

Darius's teeth were about to break when he thought of this.

I thought that taking over the city of Fokarodna would turn this forced military operation into a profit, but now it seems that the result is a greater loss... How can I swallow this anger so easily?

However, if I don't swallow this anger, does Noxus really have the ability to compete with the Demacians who seem to be well prepared and have arrived at Nokmochi at a flying speed?

If this battle fails, then Noxus will really be doomed. At that time, whether it is the Overwatch Alliance, the Second Silver Republic, or the Kingdom of Rocklund, they will definitely cling to Demacia's thighs, and the reunification of the Noxus Empire will be a long way off...

Facing this huge problem, Darius' heart is full of pain.

If he is not the commander-in-chief, if he only represents himself, Darius has never lacked the courage to go all out.

But now as the commander-in-chief of Noxus and controlling the future of Noxus, he is not qualified to go all in easily.

That night, Darius locked himself in the office and did not sleep all night.

The next morning, when he walked out of the office, the great commander finally had a feature similar to his predecessor - his hairline moved back half an inch visibly.

Then, just as he called the clerk in charge of handling the text, intending to swallow his anger and put the main responsibility on himself and his brother Draven, his secretary found him first and provided him with an unexpected piece of news.

"The messenger of the Frost Witch is here again."

I caught a cold a few days ago, and I was a little confused. There are many omissions in the chapters I uploaded. I am very sorry.

I feel much better today, so there should be no problem... right?