The way the Tanggulas fought was like a swarm of locusts, there was no end to them. If both sides had a thousand soldiers, Salin's swordsmen would definitely win the battle. But the Vatican's soldiers did not care about their own casualties. Even if they won, it would be a pyrrhic victory. Now that the enemy outnumbered them by several times, the two commanders made a prompt decision and ordered a retreat.
The firing speed of the hand crossbows was fast enough. A thousand people retreated into the forest, and the people at the back used the hand crossbows to shoot at the enemy's thighs or warhorses. The Tanggulas people who refused to dismount soon suffered, and all of them dismounted to give chase.
In the forest, the warhorses could only give the soldiers the advantage of height, but not speed.
The people trained by Salin had a set of skills in escaping. The forest was originally very wide. Before the ambush, the two commanders had the soldiers cut down a part of the forest at the back, leaving the skeleton warhorses and necromancers here. Judikoko had already escorted the injured away and was not with them. The only thing they could use now was the necromancer.
The purpose of the forest was to stop the enemy cavalry. If it was too wide, it would be troublesome for them to run. In pursuit of speed, these thousand people did not have heavy armor. Only a hundred wore light armor, the rest leather armor. If the Tanggulas caught up, they would not be able to withstand the cavalry's heavy machetes.
The Tanggulas people were fast enough. Even though a few hundred of them had been shot down by the crossbows, there were still more people catching up. Although the terrain here was flat, it was still a mountainous area. The skeleton warhorses could not increase their speed, and the soldiers' horsemanship could not be said to be perfect.
So as soon as they reached the open space, the thousand soldiers automatically divided into five groups and fled. Although they were a little aggrieved that they did not fight in close combat and lost 200 crossbows, they were satisfied that they could shoot down more than 300 enemies. More than 600 enemies were wounded by arrows, but they could only exhaust some of the mages' energy.
The two flag commanders each led a large group and fled east. Both of them regretted that they should not have retreated and forced their way into the forest, leaving Judikoko behind.
But then they realized that the necromancer might not be obedient. It was already good enough that he was willing to protect the injured. If not for Judikoko, they might not have been able to cause so much damage to the Vatican's expeditionary army. Because Judi and Koko were entangled with a large number of mages, they were able to kill and injure the enemy. Now, to let that undead guard the rear … I'm afraid that Sir Salin would have to personally give the order.
The soldiers of the Church charged into the forest and quickly passed through, only to see the detestable Qin Yinren riding away on a skeleton warhorse. The strong Tanggulas people drew their bows and shot a few arrows, but they were dodged by the agile swordsmen.
"Don't chase after them. Let's go back." When the officer from the Tanggulas Empire saw this scene, he gave the order angrily.
"Sir!"
"Don't tell us that the enemy has a Necromancer. We can't catch up to these Skeleton Warhorses. Hmph, I don't believe that they can escape into the sea after we flatten their cities. "
The ambush of more than a thousand archers had only caused such little damage. The army of the Church had still taken a shortcut, avoiding the detour of a few hundred miles, and continued heading east.
After the vanguard came the ten thousand regular soldiers, and then the middle army. The troops at the back had already merged with the logistics troops. Salin's troops harassed the logistics troops and received good results. The expeditionary army could only advance quickly, hoping to reach Metatlin City before the food ran out.
Salin's last two flag commanders were lucky. They had escaped quickly enough. Otherwise, when the ten thousand troops behind them arrived, they would have been completely wiped out.
The Tanggulas people walked along the western border of Phoenix, and there were no obstacles. But from this line to the east, there were about two thousand miles of small roads, and there were no large cities. After the turmoil in Phoenix, almost all the people in the border cities had fled. The army of the Church advanced east, and there was nothing to plunder.
After massacring a few scattered villages, the Tanggulas people lost interest in plundering. Because they could turn a village upside down, they would only be able to get a few hundred pounds of flour, and all of it was mixed with other grains.
With Judi and Koko's help, Salin's sixth battalion was almost back to Metatlin City. Only the two flag regiments that were lagging behind, with a little over a thousand soldiers remaining, were still hurrying on skeleton warhorses. They were getting farther and farther away from the army of the Church, and by the middle of June, they reached Salin's first town in the northern wilderness.
This town had already received news that the demons of the Tanggulas Empire were coming to massacre the town. Both the residents and the merchants had to retreat quickly. The battle at Jialoulan had already proved that the Tanggulas people were inhumane. They would even kill ordinary citizens.
The eighth and ninth flag regiments happened to run into the soldiers of the fifth battalion who had come to help the retreat. The Necromancers in the two flag regiments were exhausted from running all the way, and so they switched to ordinary warhorses to help the residents retreat.
This town was not far from the border of Phoenix, and Phoenix was about a hundred miles to the south. This was also the town furthest west that Salin had built. Originally, there were merchants passing through here all year round, and it was starting to look prosperous. But with the army coming, the people here had no choice but to abandon their homes and flee with their belongings.
To the Church, war was a way to spread their faith, but to the ordinary people, war was always a terrifying demon, and it was best not to appear.
This town was the first stop after leaving Phoenix. It was several times larger than the other towns, and had more than three thousand residents. Luckily, there were many Spellcasters in the two battalions that Salin had sent out this time. They could use the equipment of the army to transport their belongings for the civilians.
There were more than fifty thousand pounds of rations in this town. Without a Great Spellcaster, it would be troublesome to move all of this. The army helped the civilians register their goods, transport their rations, and some valuables. They had to give up their houses, and these civilians only hoped that the Tanggulas people would not set them on fire when they passed by.
After two days of delay, the army of Metatlin City had cleared most of the goods and started to move the civilians away. After the civilians had been moved, the soldiers who had brought up the rear set fire to the town and razed it to the ground.
This was Salin's order. At most, they would just rebuild. But the houses that were left behind were for the army of the Church to station. If they managed to defeat the army in the future, the Tanggulas people could use these towns to stop Salin's pursuit. They might as well burn them all, lest they regret it in the future.
Two days later, the army of the Tanggulas Empire arrived at this town. The officer of the Tanggulas Empire was furious when he saw the white ground and the burned city walls. But anger alone could not solve the problem. He could only order his subordinates to station outside the town, lest they encountered any traps while clearing the ruins inside.
The army of a hundred thousand chased Salin's army all the way east. Along the way, Salin ordered the army at the back to burn all the towns that could be garrisoned, leaving not a grain behind. The commander of the expeditionary army of the Tanggulas Empire gritted his teeth. Too much of their baggage had been burned by Salin, and all that was left were the rations in the space equipment of the cardinals. The consumption of an army of a hundred thousand was too great. They could resupply along the way in the Jialoulan Empire, but at the edge of the Qinyin Empire, they had to rely on the supplies they brought with them every day.
Salin's Metatlin City was located in the wilderness. There were no natural villages in between the seaside and the first town that bordered Phoenix. All the villages were near Metatlin City. Besides, the crops in the north had only just begun to be sown at this season. The soldiers could not dig up the seeds from the soil to eat.
Salin's soldiers could not increase their battle power too much in a short period of time, but they had done a good job in this kind of retreat training. The towns within a thousand miles were all scorched, and the army of the Church did not get a single thing.
With the Pope's orders, these people did not dare enter Phoenix to plunder. That would waste too much time. Besides, the borders of Phoenix were barren. The chaos of the Black Magicians, coupled with the invasion of Qinyin, had greatly damaged Phoenix's vitality.
Just like that, the vanguard of the Tanggulas Empire's army sped up, and finally arrived at the mountain pass about two hundred miles away from Metatlin City. This was the only way to enter the Metatlin Plains. Salin had focused all his energy on Metatlin, and had not expected an invasion from land so soon. So the construction here was not sufficient. In just two months, the walls of this mountain pass had been raised to more than thirty meters. With the help of the mountains, it could be said to be an impregnable pass.
Salin's second battalion was stationed here, and there were a few smaller mercenary teams. The second battalion had less than twenty thousand people, including the support troops. Salin's support troops were too few, and all he recruited were regular troops. In addition, there were many Caucasians in the mountains on both sides to prevent enemies from infiltrating in the mountains.
There were no residents in this militarized pass, and its name was also full of murderous intent: Duanren Pass. The food stored here could only be used for five days, and Salin's mission was to defend it for three days.
The purpose of these three days was to use up the last bit of food in the expeditionary army of the Holy See. If the enemy's attacks were not sharp enough, defending for two more days would be considered military merit.
Ten cannons had been set up inside Duanren Pass. Although they were called cannons, they were actually large crossbows to prevent enemy Mages from flying over.
As long as one was not a ninth-level expert, they would not dare to fly over such a large crossbow. If there were alchemy crossbows hidden inside, they would fall to their deaths if they were shot.
Cavalry could not attack the city, and could only wait for the main army to arrive. There were close to thirty thousand people in Duanren Pass. According to the usual rules, they could defend against an attack of a hundred thousand people. After all, this was a pass, and only one side could withstand attacks. However, there were no Magic Towers at this pass, and it was very difficult to defend.
The number of catapults in the city was only enough to destroy the enemy's catapults, but not enough to kill a large number of enemy soldiers.
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