Chapter 138

Orson thought and sighed.

Why are family affairs always so bad?

…

Desert, Balu tribe.

Balu has been in a bad mood recently. Although he has relied on his own abilities to continuously conquer nearby orc tribes and incorporate them into his own command, the casualties he paid in the civil war have reduced the strength of the orcs as a whole. More than half.

The number of orc warriors before the war was 300,000. Now, the number of orcs under Balu's command is about 10,000, and the total number of other tribes combined is only about 10,000.

The orcs are truly gone.

Although the orcs reproduce at a very fast rate, and it will only take a few decades to return to the scale before the war, these decades are the period when the orcs are at their weakest.

If there was a race that could ignore the invasion of wind and sand and launch an attack on itself, the orcs would really be exterminated.

However, the sandy weather seems to have really disappeared recently, which makes Balu even more worried.

He looked at the old orc who had become his military advisor. At this moment, the old orc was drinking cold water leisurely.

"Senior, I don't know why, but I always have a bad feeling lately?"

"Oh?" The old orc heard this and looked at Balu. "Chief Balu, what are you worried about? Why don't you tell us?"

"In the past few days, there seems to have been no sandstorms in the desert."

"This is a normal thing." The old orc said, not caring about Balu's worries. "In the desert, this kind of thing happens from time to time. It doesn't mean that there will always be wind and sand. Moreover, our current location is on the outskirts of the desert. The deeper we go into the desert, the more frequent the wind and sand will be."

"I hope so." Balu nodded after hearing this. "Now that the strength of our tribe has surpassed that of the entire orcs, the remaining tribes will basically just have to wait for time to persuade them to surrender."

"When the time comes, we will follow your ideas, senior, and imitate the human system and carry out reforms. This is the way out for the orcs, right?"

"Yes." The old orc nodded.

"Well, I hope the sacrifices of so many compatriots are meaningful." Balu said this and sighed.

"Chief Balu, you don't have to feel sad for their passing. Think about it, maybe not long ago, they were wishing you were dead."

"They are just stumbling blocks on the road of the orcs' revival. Besides, you have confessed before the King of Beasts, so you don't need to feel guilty." The old orc comforted Balu.

"Yeah." Balu nodded after hearing this.

Then, suddenly an orc warrior ran in.

"Something bad is going on!

Chief Balu! Human beings, so many human beings! They are coming towards us! "The orc warrior said this, breathing heavily and looking very embarrassed.

"What? Why do humans come to us?" Balu said, looking at the orc warriors in disbelief, and then turned to look at the old orcs.

"Senior, what should we do in this situation?"

"This..." the old orc thought for a while, and then said: "Maybe there is really no wind and sand in the outer areas these days. Why don't we retreat deep into the desert first?"

"This seems to be the only solution for now." Balu nodded in agreement after hearing this.

Anyway, as long as you go deep into the desert, you will definitely be protected by the wind and sand. If humans still dare to pursue them, they will die of various diseases without the help of the orcs, and they will leave behind a large amount of food. Supply the orcs.

Subsequently, Balu ordered the tribe to set out overnight.

Then, after marching for three days, Balu's mood never got better.

For the past three days, they had been marching deep into the desert, but they did not encounter the sandy weather they had dreamed of.

And human soldiers are also chasing behind them.

He only has 10,000 soldiers, while humans have a hundred thousand.

Although there are no more imperial elites like the Royal Knights, local elites like the Black Army are still in this army.

Not just Balu's army, other orc tribes in the desert were also attacked by human armies. They never imagined that humans who had not dared to go deep into the desert for thousands of years would go deep into the desert this time, and not a little bit. Nothing happened.

Late at night, Balu was sitting in the makeshift military camp. He looked at the old orc sitting next to him.

The old orc's face didn't look very good at this moment.

"Senior, tell me, could it be that we were fighting each other, causing the King of Beasts to no longer protect us..."

"This is impossible." The old orc shook his head firmly. "The King of Beasts will never abandon his creation..."

"Then why, why is there still no wind..."

"This..." The old orc was silent for a while, not knowing what to say.

"How about." At this time, Balu suddenly said: "How about we fight this human army. If we retreat again, we will retreat to the temple. We don't want to see the land of the King of Beasts destroyed. Outsiders trample on..."

"Okay." The old orc said and nodded. "Furthermore, we are not sure whether humans have encountered sandstorms before. What if this group of human troops encountered sandstorms when they first entered the desert, and now they are actually sick and fighting against us..."

"Well, that's all." Balu said, making up his mind.

Early the next morning, Balu gathered all the warriors in the tribe, distributed the food, and after eating the last meal, he led the warriors towards the human army.

While the warriors charged, the women and children continued to retreat to the rear under the leadership of the old orc.

Balu took the lead and charged into the human army, hacking and slashing.

These orcs have the mentality of killing one to get back their money and killing two to earn one, and have almost lost their discipline.

The human army was not diseased as Balu and the old orcs imagined. Instead, it was very fierce and could fight better than ordinary orcs.

The result of the war is obvious. The human side won a complete victory, while the orcs were completely wiped out.

Humans have no habit of keeping prisoners. Under the pursuit of cavalry, no matter how strong the two legs of the orcs are, they cannot outrun the four legs of the cavalry.

A few days later, the human army finally caught up with the old, weak, women and children of the Balu tribe.

Facing the pursuing human army, first the elders and women of the tribe took up arms, and then the young children.

As for the infants in swaddling clothes, under such harsh conditions, most of them would have died long ago, and the remaining babies would not survive more than a few days without anyone to care for them.

The first phase of the elimination mission took half a month, and a thorough carpet search and elimination of the orcs still required a lot of time, but the manpower and material resources invested in it were still much less than in the first phase.

On the other side, Orson thought of a good strategy. He gave the city of Kars, which was originally intended to be an immigration city, to the orcs as a city for the orcs.

When collecting information about the orcs, Orson was surprised to find that the total number of orcs was only over 30,000.

You know, even if the orcs kill each other to that point, there are still 20,000 warriors and about 50,000 ordinary people, the number is about 70,000, and this is the number of orcs in decades.

When the quantity is lowest.

At its peak, the number of orcs exceeded one million.

The number of orcs is quite stable.

Originally, Orson thought that the development of the Orcs would take up a lot of land in the eastern region, but now it seems that one Karls City is even enough to house all the Orc groups.

Of course, these are just the orcs in the desert. In the human empire, there are still many orcs as slaves or free people in various cities, but their total number does not exceed one hundred thousand.

The number of humans is hundreds of times that of orcs.

Thinking about it this way, the orcs can actually adopt the city-state development model. As long as the city of Kars is developed well, the orcs can live a very good life.

Under the recommendation of the orc leaders, Arati, who had a good relationship with Orson, was elected as the temporary city lord of Kars City and became the leader of the orc group.

Everything is developing prosperously.

But before all this, things in the Duchy of Antica were not that good.

After Lite received the news that Emperor Odysseus was about to visit the Duchy of Antica, he was stunned for a moment, and then felt a sense of difficulty.

If Odysseus comes, Lucius has to come out to see him, right?

Even if he is staying at home due to illness, what should he do if Odysseus proposes to come into the house to visit Lucius?

If Lucius didn't get sick during the visit, that would be okay, but what if Lucius suddenly got sick?

It is very possible for a patient with this kind of disease to say something suddenly or do something stupid, but if it becomes a great disrespect to the emperor, even if Odysseus can understand Lu Xiu Si, if you can escape the blame, the family's reputation will also be hit.

Think about it, a family whose head is demented would be laughed at.

But after all, it was a letter sent by the emperor himself, and it would be impossible not to reply. In desperation, Li Teuk could only reply on his behalf.

Lite implicitly expressed in the letter that Lucius was ill and might not be able to salute His Majesty the Emperor at that time. After receiving the letter, Odysseus wanted to see Lucius.

In any case, Lucius is also a close confidant of the emperor. He once made great military exploits for the empire. Now he is injured. As an emperor, whether he takes care of the mood of his ministers or achieves his own political goals, he always comes to see him. One look at it.

After Li Te received the reply, he felt overwhelmed. In desperation, he could only take one step at a time.

Invitations have been sent out, and the dignitaries have begun to leave.

And some people may have been waiting to see the Stranik family's jokes.

It happened that at this time, Mary took the exam again and challenged Li Te.

"Li Te, are you sure you haven't found Randall no matter how you search in the past few days?"

"Yeah." Lite rubbed his forehead and nodded helplessly. "I'm sorry, Mother, we have searched the entire Duchy of Antica and can't find any trace of Mr. Randall. I suspect that he may have been kidnapped."

"Kidnapped?!" Mary said, showing a suspicious expression.

"Li Teuk, let me make it clear." After saying this, she took a deep breath, and then said: "I already know about the master. He can't remember clearly, and he always thinks of me as his ex-wife."

"Such a serious matter, why did you and Orson hide it from me? Why did I have to go and see it myself to find out? Are you the master's children, and am I not the master's wife?!" She questioned Litt loudly, making Litt feel ashamed.

"Sorry, mother, this matter... is mainly for the sake of father's face..."

"Face, what face do we have to talk about in a family?" Mary said this, and laughed in anger. "I think you don't regard me as your mother at all. The master just forgot about the matter, and you started to undermine the master's power. Now you are kidnapping my confidants. Are you going to do it to me next!?"

Faced with the aggressive Mary, Orson could only make concessions in words.

"Sorry, mother, but Mr. Randall's disappearance really has nothing to do with us. We are also trying to find him..."

"Hehe, try to find him? Posting a few notices is considered trying to find him? Why don't you look for the properties under your and Orson's names? See if there are any Tibetans there?!"

"Mother, please believe us..."

"Litt." Mary said this and walked to the door. "I'll be frank with you. If you don't treat me as a family member, don't blame me for being heartless and ungrateful."

With that, Mary closed the door heavily.

Looking at the closed door, Lit sighed helplessly.

This wave of pressure has been withstood, but what should be done next when the emperor arrives?

If Mary completely tears off the family's face in front of the emperor and complains to the emperor, how should this matter be handled?

If Mary had no power, it would be fine, but she is the sister of the Duke of Orleans. Although she has a low status in the family and is only married as a tool for political marriage, there is no doubt that if necessary, the Duke of Orleans will definitely stand on Mary's side.

(PS: This chapter is 17,000, which is a super chapter of two in one. I hope to receive your friendly monthly tickets next month)

(PS: There will be three consecutive holidays on February 29, February 30, and February 31. Normal updates will be made from March 1. Please live a regular life and rest on time. I hereby inform you.)

Chapter 24: What are you looking at me for?

The time finally came for the celebration banquet.

This morning, the emperor's imperial chariot arrived in Antica. This was the first time that Odysseus had come to Antica since he ascended the throne, except for the war eighteen years ago.

"Your Majesty, please look, this is the new city of Antica." In front of Odysseus, Litt, the temporary head of the Dukedom of Antica, was describing the changes in Antica.

The two were now standing on the tower of the church in the old city of Antica. Standing here, they could see the scenery of the entire Antica city, especially the new city area, which almost accounts for half of the area of ​​Antica today.

Unlike the messy and old old city, the new city area has been clearly arranged in various functional areas after the latest planning, and the buildings are solid and beautiful. It can be said that in many places, it is better than Saint Laurent City.

"Very good." Odysseus looked at the new city area of ​​Antica and nodded with satisfaction.

Eighteen years ago, although Antica was a large city in the eastern part of the empire, it was still quite large, but it had already suffered from urban diseases and looked far worse than it does today.

Although the planning of the new city area has made Antica less lively, as a city, the current appearance of Antica has been able to rank among the top cities in the empire.

"I heard that all the initial planning was arranged by Orson, right?"

Odysseus said this and turned to look at Litt.

"Yes, most of the planning of the new city area was handled by my brother, and the current president of the Lisson Chamber of Commerce, Miss Chelinina, participated in the construction of the new city area throughout the whole process and completed the planning of the new city area with the highest quality and the fastest speed." Litt stood beside Odysseus, not panicking, but reporting to Odysseus in a calm tone about the work of the dukedom.

"Then, Lit, let me ask you, in your opinion, will cities continue to expand in the end?" Odysseus suddenly wanted to test the child in front of him, so he thought of a more difficult question.

"Well..." Lit thought about it, then nodded, and she said: "Yes, in my opinion, at least the current trend is like this, the city will serve as an economic center, providing a function of goods distribution and market supply for the surrounding villages and towns."

"The highest level city is the empire's Saint Laurent City. As the center of the entire empire, for Saint Laurent City, the future development should be to turn other local cities into the so-called "villages and towns" of Saint Laurent City, injecting economic vitality into Saint Laurent City."