naaapseattle #713 - Immortal Army
#713 - Immortal Army
The last rays of the winter sunset shone into the deep knight's hall. This fortress, built at great expense by the Niederbach family, did not have the liveliness it had when it was first built.
The narrow, pointed arch windows blocked the sunlight into streaks of light, shining on the blue bee family emblem holding a spear, actually showing a light purple color.
Sitting on a high-backed seat on one side of the main seat, Ebode tapped the table impatiently with his index finger.
On both sides of the pillars of this corridor-like hall stood full of guards, and on both sides of the bright red wool carpet were two neat rows of powerful vassals and court ministers.
The hall was silent at the moment, so silent that it was a bit desolate.
The vassals and courtiers all lowered their heads. Occasionally, they turned their heads to see if the Duke of Niederbach had arrived on the main seat.
Unfortunately, they waited from the orange sunlight to the red, but they did not wait for the Duke's arrival.
It was not until a servant in a blue robe hurried over in small steps that this calm was broken.
Whispering a few words in Ebode's ear, the servant whispered.
Ebode's forehead twitched, then he waved his hand and stood up: "Everyone, His Grace the Duke is not feeling well, so let the Minister of Foreign Affairs, that is, me, preside over the meeting on his behalf."
Although he said so, the vassals below lowered their heads and whispered.
Especially the vassals in the front row, they all heard the words "hunting" from the servant's ear, and they didn't need to think about what the Duke was doing.
Now that the Duke is besieged by a large army in one county, the roads are blocked, and the food is about to run out.
When all the knights and vassals are fighting for honor, he actually went hunting at this time?
Where does this look like a monarch?
Ebode felt a headache. The Duke of Niederbach has been in this ostrich posture since he lost the case against King Gigi in the Imperial Court.
Originally, the two dukes had all the advantages, but they lost everything overnight, and Niederbach's ambition had long been lost.
He coughed, signaling the courtiers who were spitting everywhere to be quiet. The loyal Minister of Foreign Affairs said loudly:
"Today's topic is still how to deal with those red-clothed knights."
Hearing the word red-clothed knight, many vassals and courtiers showed complicated expressions on their faces.
The so-called red-clothed knights are mercenaries of the Flesh Court hired by King Ginigis.
They are essentially the same group as Nidsar, that is, the human desert herders in the south of the Flesh Court.
The main evidence in the case of "Ginigis colluding with vampires" in the Imperial Court was these red-clothed knights.
They are mostly heavy cavalry wearing red robes, but they do not wear helmets. They are unusually tall and strong, and they are extremely brave and fierce in battle.
In the Battle of Hanjin Mountain, three hundred red-clothed knights broke through the formation in the rain and actually defeated the invincible Edict Company, which led to the defeat of the two dukes.
A red-clothed knight often requires several extraordinary knights to besiege him to barely knock him off his horse.
According to a knight who fought with them, he personally saw the skin of the red-clothed knight block swords.
Moreover, these knights are not like the walking corpses or skeletons of vampires, unable to ride horses.
The red-clothed knights are delirious and cannot communicate, but they ride horses extremely well.
After the war, the Duke's army found the bodies of the red-clothed knights and asked doctors to dissect them, only to find that these knights not only had two stomachs, but also unusually large hearts.
Moreover, this heart was obviously not a human heart, but a large magical creature's transplanted heart.
Not only that, but various organs in their bodies had undergone a large number of deformities.
Besides blood magic, Ebode couldn't think of any other possibilities.
But blood magic is used on the dead, how exactly is it used on the living?
Unfortunately, this can only prove that the Flesh Court mercenaries used magic, but it cannot prove that Ginigis used magic.
Moreover, Ginigis is about to win, so of course the Imperial Council will not find him guilty at this time.
"We couldn't win against three hundred knights back then, and now there are more red-clothed knights than before." A courtier complained, "We are powerless militarily, and we can only rely on the Imperial Council."
"Without a military victory, what's the use of passing it in the Imperial Council and denying Ginigis's position as king?"
"At least force Ginigis to negotiate!"
"How is that possible? At this time, if I were him, I would never negotiate."
"We are surrounded by more than 50,000 troops and have less than 20,000 in our hands. Can we still fight without negotiating?"
"The great King Cronswa only had a village back then, didn't he still defeat the rebels?"
"Actually." A courtier from the intelligence department stood up, "Lord Ebode, do you know about Prince Condé's disastrous defeat in the Qianhe Valley?"
"I remember, nine Edict Companies, right? Only 400 knights escaped, and even the prince himself died in battle." Ebode shook his head, "What are you bringing this up for?"
"I got a message, that is, the secret of how the Qianhe Valley people defeated Prince Condé." As he said that, the courtier took out an iron pipe inlaid with a wooden bracket from his bag.
"This is a kind of alchemy crossbow. Although we haven't found a way for ordinary people to use it on a large scale, since it can defeat the Edict Company, can it be applied to these red-clothed knights?"
After explaining the power of this weapon in detail, the surrounding vassals looked at each other.
Several knights showed disgusted expressions, after all, this is a "despicable" projectile weapon in their eyes.
"You can say it here, but no one knows if it's true. We'll know how powerful it is with a test." Ebode was also intrigued by this weapon and snapped his fingers.
Soon, several servants walked in with a huge cage on a trolley.
Inside the cage was a tall man in tattered red clothes.
Although the red-clothed knights are strong, they are not great knights after all. It is also possible to be captured with a broken leg or injured.
There are now 3 red-clothed knight prisoners in the dungeon of the Knight's Hall.
Along with him was a girl with her hands and feet chained.
She looked like a skinny peasant girl with rough skin, but she was pressed down by an iron shackle that was almost half her body weight.
The whip cracked, leaving several bloody marks on the girl's back.
While crying in pain, she held a clockwork gun under the control of two knights.
As the girl struggled to twist, the clockwork creaked.
The strong figure with pale eyes in the cage seemed to feel something and suddenly rushed to the iron railing, shaking it frantically.
"Pa." The whip fell on the girl's back again, "Stop, continue."
Tears in her eyes, the girl continued to turn the clockwork.
The strong figure's movement of shaking the railing became more and more violent.
Until it clicked and tightened, she could no longer support herself and collapsed to the ground.
At the same time, a sharp whistling sound immediately sounded. Even this kind of inferior monkey version of the clockwork gun would not be crooked within a distance of three to five meters.
The moment the gun fired, the strong figure who was still shaking the railing trembled all over, and his back slammed the entire cage with a crash.
Then, in the surprised eyes of Ebode and others, the strong figure slowly collapsed to the ground.
"Great." Slapping the armrest, Ebode suddenly sat up from the chair, about to step forward, but stopped again, "Toms, go and see."
The unlucky servant had to go forward cautiously, picked up a cane, and gently poked the figure in the cage.
"Dead, dead." Seeing that the figure did not respond, the servant dropped the cane and shouted excitedly.
However, he did not see excitement in the eyes of the courtiers and vassals, but instead revealed a lot of horror.
Immediately, there was a roar behind him that was not like a human.
The next second, an arm with bulging veins stretched out from the railing and grabbed the servant's neck.
With a loud bang, the ministers present were startled.
When they reacted, a corpse with broken bones was half outside the cage and half inside the cage.
White bones protruded from the flesh and blood, emitting heat, but the red-clothed knight opened his bloody mouth and frantically gnawed on the servant's flesh and blood.
A strong bloody smell filled the air, and the ministers were shocked by this scene of eating raw meat and drinking blood and could not speak.
It was not until the red-clothed knight had gnawed seven or eight bites that his movements gradually slowed down until he stopped, standing in the cage like a statue.
This time the soldiers learned to be good, took out a spear and poked it. Seeing him stiffly fall to the ground, they breathed a sigh of relief.
"So this weapon does work on red-clothed knights?"
"They didn't wear armor, otherwise this lead bullet would only get stuck in their skin." Ebode shook his head in disappointment, "And they won't die immediately when hit, unlike humans. They can continue to charge into the army and then die, it's useless.
But it can be used to defend the city, but there are too few of them, there is no time to build them, and alchemists have to operate them. I feel that it is not as useful as siege crossbows."
"I didn't think carefully enough."
"No, this is very useful for defending the city, but it came too late." Edmund looked around the hall and even nodded encouragingly at several courtiers, "Does anyone else have any new ideas?"
Unfortunately, there were no clockwork guns left except for the bad ideas of assassination and poisoning.
"Okay, let's talk about the defense plan..."