Chapter 444

"They are covering it up, that must be the case! Contact Saint Laurent City quickly and have our people act quickly. We must not wait until the royal family destroys all the evidence before investigating."

"Yes! I know!"

...

On the other side, Saint Laurent City.

Orson stood at the door of the Imperial Court.

Just yesterday, Odysseus personally ordered that the special task force responsible for investigating Francois' assassination case be disbanded on the grounds that there had been no progress for too long, and a new investigation team was established.

And now, a group of soldiers are at the door of the Imperial Court, moving boxes of information out of the court, preparing to transport them to the palace for storage.

"It seems that His Majesty is determined to protect His Royal Highness the Prince." Orson said slowly.

Elsa beside him also sighed.

"There's no way. This matter is too sensitive. Even if I don't want to protect my brother, I have to force myself to get through this period of time for the sake of the royal family's face."

"This is the royal family, Orson. Will you be disappointed with your father and the royal family?"

Chapter 80: The enemy attacked

"It is precisely because the royal family is like this that it is necessary to let Her Highness Elsa take the stage." Orson stood beside Elsa and said softly.

"Your Highness Elsa, you are different. I believe you are the right person, whether it is the rule of the empire or the people under your rule."

His voice was only heard by himself and Elsa.

Sure enough, after hearing this, Elsa was obviously stunned for a moment.

"You...what do you mean?" Elsa seemed to have misunderstood the meaning of Orson's words, and her cheeks were slightly red.

"It's obvious, Her Highness Elsa, I believe you." Orson said this, turned his head to look at Elsa, and smiled.

"The road ahead is long and difficult, and this matter will not end so easily, believe me."

After saying this, Orson turned around and left first.

...

Back to the front line of the war, Florence is about to fall. This city is the second most important city in the Duchy of Naples.

From the name of the Duke's family, Florence, it can be seen that this city is the place where the Florence family made their fortune, and it has been the capital of the Duchy of Naples for a long time. It was only hundreds of years ago that a natural disaster caused the capital of the Duchy of Naples to move to Romulus.

Now, all the defenders of Florence have left the city. They have built a line of defense outside the city, and they must not let the enemy cross the line of defense to attack their homes.

At this moment, in the Naples military camp outside Florence, Martin was sitting outside a military tent and roasting a fire.

Although the Duchy of Naples is in the south of the empire, it is not as cold as the Duchy of Lucia in the north, which can freeze people to death in winter, but it is still very difficult to endure.

The biting cold wind, accompanied by moist water vapor, rushed straight into people's limbs and bones, making people shiver.

In this kind of weather, only by roasting the fire can you feel more comfortable.

These days, relying on his heroic performance in the battle, he has been promoted by the commander to the commander of a thousand-man force. At this moment, his troops need to be responsible for the defense of the front line of the entire team.

If the enemy chooses to attack, he will be the first troop to meet the enemy.

Whether it is said that the commander values ​​him or treats him as cannon fodder, Martin does not care.

His request is just to select several of his companions as his adjutants.

Anyway, he fought to resist the invasion, and letting him stand on the front line against the invaders is also what he wants.

"Martin." Just when Martin was roasting the fire, a man came over.

He was a companion who participated in the conscription with Martin, and a comrade-in-arms who had always accompanied Martin in the front line.

"What's wrong, Wertz." Martin looked at the other party and asked in confusion.

"Do you think we have a chance of winning?" Wiltz sat next to Martin, took off his gloves, and then put his hands by the fire to warm them.

When they first set out, the enemy was still a few days away from Florence, but now they have retreated to the city of Florence, and behind them are the people they have to protect.

"Why not? Evil cannot defeat good." Martin said this, his face unchanged.

"They are invaders, so we will definitely be able to repel them."

"But... I heard that they didn't do anything excessive to the people, and the reason for their attack was our Duke... he..."

"Wiltz!" Martin interrupted him.

"If you say this in the army, you will be beheaded. Do you want to die?!"

"But..." Wiltz said anxiously: "I really don't know why we are fighting now."

"Don't say that bullshit about fighting for the Duke. You are a noble, you should understand these principles better than me. These shitty nobles are not worth our lives, and the enemy will not do anything to our relatives. They seem to really just want to punish the Duke..."

"Then what?" Martin listened to Wiltz's words, raised his head and looked at him silently. "Then what? Just because the enemy does not abuse civilians, we can hand over the land passed down from our era?"

"Why do you think the enemy will not abuse civilians? Is it because we are still fighting, they do this to make us give up the will to resist and surrender obediently, right?"

"So, don't say that our resistance is meaningless, Wiltz. On the contrary, our resistance not only protects the people behind us, but also makes the enemy dare not act recklessly against the people in the occupied areas."

Martin's words make sense. Indeed, if his weapons are still in his hands, he still has the capital to negotiate with the enemy, and the enemy will also be afraid of him.

But if he even handed over his weapons to the enemy, then the enemy would not hesitate to do anything to his side.

Although it is not ruled out that the enemy really has good military discipline, but if it is a show, who will bear the price?

Martin does not want to be the sinner. Similarly, many soldiers and officers on the front line have similar ideas as him.

"Okay, let's not talk about this." Martin said this and changed the subject.

"Wiltz, have the scouts and magicians sent any information?"

On the battlefield, in addition to scouts, there is another way to explore military intelligence, that is magic.

Although magicians are not usually equipped in ordinary armies, when a war breaks out, the profession of military magicians is quite common.

In addition to setting off fireballs and rocks on the battlefield to assist the army in killing the enemy, the magician also has the function of reconnaissance.

"Hey, don't say it, the magician assigned to us is a young lady. She thinks that reconnaissance is not suitable for her all day long. In this kind of weather, so many leaves are dead. How can the scouts go to reconnaissance?" When Wiltz heard this, he immediately began to complain.

Indeed, those who can get in touch with magic are mostly children from wealthy families. It is normal to dislike these big soldiers.

"This is not okay. You should talk to her quickly... Forget it, I will go to persuade her." Martin said this and was about to get up. At this time, a pile of snow falling from the branches in the distance suddenly attracted his attention.

It is not snowing in the sky now, and the reason why the snow can fall from the branches is also very simple.

As more and more snow fell, Martin frowned.

"It's too late, Wiltz, you quickly call all the soldiers out and form a formation, the enemy is about to attack!"

Sure enough, when the soldiers came out of the warm tent, they were still complaining at first, but when they saw the army slowly approaching in the distance, they all held their breath.

The enemy attacked.

Chapter 81: Negotiations before the battle

The battle began.

Fortunately, Martin's sharpness allowed the soldiers to form a formation in time, otherwise the battle would lose hope at the beginning.

Of course, there is still not much hope left now.

As a sixth-level warrior, Martin has seen many big battles when he adventures, so he will not be scared when facing such a scene.

But the soldiers under his command are different.

Like Martin, most of them are recruits from other places. Some of them have combat experience, but most of them are farmers without combat experience. Even after this period of battlefield training, they still cannot be called veterans.

And the number of enemies, judging from this battle, is at least ten times that of their own side.

Faced with this kind of attack, Martin certainly knew that it was impossible to win. He quickly ordered Wirtz to go to the rear to request reinforcements, while he tried his best to hold this line.

Every inch he retreated, an inch of land would fall.

On the other side, in the vanguard of Antica and the royal coalition.

The person in charge of this main attack was Litt, the leader of the vanguard. At this moment, she was riding a horse and leading the troops to advance slowly in the snow.

This kind of weather is not only a torment for the defenders, but also for the coalition forces as the attacking party. It has been snowing these days, and Litt deliberately waited until the snow stopped before ordering the attack.

After all, it is unknown when the next snow will fall. It is best to take Florence before the next snow, so that you can face Romulus, the capital of Naples.

Although most of the earls of the Dukedom of Naples gave up resistance, the Duke's own power was not weak, and the coalition forces took a lot of effort to attack.

However, as more and more land was captured, the enemy's fighting will was also declining, and the war would become visibly smooth.

After all, if the command is correct, the war is a snowball behavior. The side with the advantage will get bigger and bigger, and finally win the last battle effortlessly.

Wearing a thick cloak, Lit looked at the Naples army in front of him. After seeing the huge number of his own army, he did not choose to escape, but tried to organize a formation to resist.

Seeing this scene, Lit knew that he was probably going to hit a wall.

For so long, the coalition forces have not been really smooth sailing. Occasionally, they will encounter Naples' elite troops. This situation will occur when fighting with Naples' elite troops. Even if their number is very low, they will not retreat. This kind of troops often adopt a fighting method that hurts both sides. Even if they eat this army, the loss will not be small.

But when Lit approached, he felt more and more that something was wrong.

The equipment of this unit is the same as that of an ordinary civilian army. In other words, it is a peasant army, used as cannon fodder. Why do they have the courage to line up in front?

When the two armies were less than 500 meters apart, Litt ordered the entire army to stop, and Virgil beside her immediately passed the order to the entire army.

Martin was standing at the front of the army, looking at the huge army in front of him, and he was sweating nervously.

Facing such a large number of enemies, he should have to retreat in the end.

At this time, the other side actually stopped, which Martin had never expected.

Then, a man walked out of the huge army formation of the other side.

It seemed that it was the leader of the other side. He wanted to talk to him?

Although Martin was not a professional soldier, seeing this situation, he could only walk out of the army formation with uncertainty.

"Is the person coming the commander of this army?" Lit shouted at Martin from a distance.

"Yes, are you the commander of the invader?" Martin nodded and asked Lit in return.

"The word 'invader' is too bad. We are just taking action this time to eliminate harm for the empire."

Seeing that they had no hostility to each other, the two moved closer.

Martin looked at the other side's long black hair and purple pupils in surprise.

What surprised him most was not these, but the other side's face that looked quite young.

If I am not mistaken, the other party should still be a child of eighteen or nineteen years old. Can such a person command such a large army? It seems that the other party is definitely rich or noble.

Thinking of this, Martin put his hand on his waist.

If he can make merit here...

But after thinking about it, Martin gave up.

The other party trusts him so much, and it is too immoral to attack like this.

Thinking of what the other party just said, Martin was furious, snorted coldly, and then replied: "Since you said that you are not an invader, then, the person standing in front of you, is the 'harm' you want to eliminate?"

"Of course not, it's just that you are blocking our way forward, which is helping the evil, so I am here to advise you to surrender."

"If that's the case, then we have nothing to talk about. If you continue to talk to me, it will delay your attack time." Martin said this, and pretended to leave.

"Don't be impatient." Lit stopped Martin, and then pointed to Martin's army.

"I have seen many Naples troops on the way here. Your troops are the most outdated troops I have ever seen. Your superiors let you guard the front line. What does he think of you? I don't need to say more, right?"

"What if I say that I chose it myself?" Hearing this, Martin smiled.

"If you chose it yourself, then I can only say that your current behavior is a crime." Litt's tone became cold.

"You clearly know that we are following the imperial edict to fight against the enemy, and your duke has now been directly excommunicated. In this case, do you still want to work for your duke?"

"I have never thought about it. I just want to protect the city behind me and the land we stand on."

Hearing Martin's words, Litt frowned.

"Then you shouldn't stand in front of us, sir. I think you are a man with your own ideas. You must know our intelligence, right? We never abuse prisoners, and the occupied areas are ruled by the original people again. We are not here to oppress you. On the contrary, we will reduce the burden that Giovanni has put on you." Litt said this and began to paint a big picture for Martin.

"Well, then we have to abandon our weapons and let others bully us, right?"

"Why do you think so!?"