196 、 Fortifying the Walls and Clearing the Fields
Felix was so shocked and furious when he received the letter that he kicked the heavy table in front of him out of the hall and smashed it to pieces, then held Goliath's head in his hand and roared at the sky. Felix had long wanted to conquer Salem in one fell swoop, but he was also waiting for the Giant Legion to assemble. Now he had three thousand giant soldiers, most of the elites of the Giant Legion.
Under the guidance of the gods, he sent Goliath to intercept and kill the miners of Duc, on the one hand because these miners were very useful, and on the other hand, to test the defensive situation of Salem as well as its strength and reaction. Unexpectedly, the plan completely failed, and none of the one hundred giant warriors sent out returned, but Aesop delivered Goliath's head.
In his rage, he had to fight even if he did not want to, otherwise how could Felix command the legion and lead the city? He immediately ordered the army to assemble, and three thousand giant warriors lined up in a formation and rushed to the city of Salem. He had the most elite regular legion of the Assyrian Kingdom in his hands, composed of all giant warriors, and officially known as the Adado Legion.
Adado was the son of Enril in the myth, the god of storms in the Anunnaki divine clan, but among the people, people were still used to calling this army the Giant Legion. Felix did not believe that the motley crew of tribesmen and wanderers in Salem could be his opponent. The only one he used to fear was Amon, as he heard that the Supreme General was very good at fighting. But now that Amon had become a god on the altar, he would not appear directly on the battlefield.
… …
Felix's guess was right, Amon would not participate in this war in person unless it was absolutely necessary. He was now at a critical juncture, and even the construction of the Garden of Eden was handed over to Peloponnus. His identity had changed, his way of living had also changed, and his mentality of looking at many problems had certainly changed.
He was the god believed in by the people of Salem, and as long as his statue still stood in the shrine, it would always give people confidence and hope, but if anything happened to him on the battlefield, it would be a fatal blow to morale. He could still clearly remember the time when Horus manifested his giant eagle avatar above the clouds, but it was destroyed by Enkidu with a single strike of his sword. At that time, that scene had caused such a shock to the morale of Eygut's army, and the defense line at Khenmet was almost lost.
The city of Salem had invested all its strength into this war, and if it was still no match, Amon alone would not be able to turn the tide on the battlefield. He knew very well that he was not invincible. Right now, he was a symbol of protection and blessing. For the army, having a firm belief, high morale, and the eruption of combat power when they risked their lives was something that even the soldiers themselves could not imagine.
Although Amon was far away in the Garden of Eden, he could still learn about what was happening on the battlefield through the prayers and sacrifices of the people, but he was training and integrating everything he had learned before into his soul, so he needed to be undisturbed and did not even deliberately look at it. What he did not know was that in the distant Eygut, Maria was looking up at the starry sky and silently calling the name of the goddess Isis. For the first time, the Adoratrice, whose faith was incomparably pure, was distracted during a prayer, and when she called the goddess Isis, the figure of Amon appeared in her mind.
Seth had told Maria that he would come back in three months to ask her what decision she had made, and when the war on the Plains of Duc broke out, two months had passed.
… …
Felix led the Giant Legion to the city of Salem. Of course, he knew that the city of Salem had built two fortresses fifty miles north of the city, and to attack the city of Salem, these two battle fortresses must be removed first. If Salem wanted to set up a battle formation for a decisive battle, the best place was also the open ground between the two fortresses. Felix was waiting for the two armies to clash there and defeat the main force of the Salem Legion in one fell swoop.
However, he did not encounter the army of Salem along the way. The road from Salem to the northern mines was currently the widest in the Plains of Duc, and it was along this road that Felix marched. Sitting in the chariot, he could see the two fortresses in the distance, standing alone on high ground on both sides of the road, about three miles apart, but not a single person could be seen around them, and no soldiers could be seen on the walls of the fortresses.
Behind the fortresses were the large fields that Salem had reclaimed in the past two years, and the wheat ears in the fields had been urgently harvested, but the straw was still there. The sheep on the distant hillside meadows were also gone, driven back into the city by the shepherds. Surprisingly, the city of Salem did not set up a battle formation here.
At this time, the scouts reported that the army of Salem had left the city, numbering about a thousand, and were waiting in battle formation outside the city, and did not come here to meet the enemy. Felix looked at the two fortresses and sneered: "I heard that the city was built by cavemen, do they know how to fight or not? If I had built these two fortresses, I would definitely set up a battle formation here, and they would be able to advance and retreat at will! "
As the Head of the Giant Legion, Felix's view was not wrong at all, but the situation in Salem was different. If George had led the An-Ra Legion back then, even if the individual combat power of the soldiers was not as good as that of the Giant Legion, they would still have formed a battle formation here, relying on the fortresses on the left and right wings to fight. But now many of the people in the Salem Legion had not really been on the battlefield, but many of the people sent by Syah had fought in wars.
So George did not want to set up a battle formation at the beginning and fight head-on. If he lost the first battle, the morale of the whole army would fall from its highest point to its lowest point in an instant, and it might even collapse.
Felix frowned as he looked at the empty field. The general next to him asked: "What do you think, Head of the Legion, should we continue to march forward and fight under the city of Salem?"
Felix shook his head: "In that case, we will be attacked from both sides, so let's take these two fortresses first as our forward bases. Don't attack at the same time for the time being, but set up two battle formations on the avenue to prevent counterattacks from the direction of Salem and the other fortress, and take one of the fortresses with all our strength first. "
The Giant Legion quickly spread out and set up defensive formations in the direction of the eastern fortress and the city of Salem, and moved all the equipment originally used to attack the city of Salem to the west, preparing to take the other fortress. The strong giant soldiers measured the distance, set up catapults, and lit torches. Groups of soldiers raised shields and carried ladders, and the chariots also set up high platforms with crossbowmen.
Strangely, there was no movement in the fortress, like an empty city, quietly waiting for the Giant Legion to finish all the siege preparations. The general in charge of the siege said to Felix, a little puzzled: "According to the intelligence, there are clearly hundreds of soldiers in this fortress, why can't I see a single person on the walls? Are they all too scared to show their faces? I have never fought such a battle before! "
Felix said expressionlessly: "They want to be cowards? Even so, they can't avoid the fate of being breached, so we'll fight as we should! "
There was no need to besiege the fortress, and Felix was not worried that the soldiers in the fortress would not go to war, he just wanted them to rush out of the fortress to fight, so he only needed to choose one side to attack, and as long as they occupied the walls or opened the gates, it would mean victory. Suddenly, there was a whistling sound on the silent plain, and dozens of huge fireballs flew up and smashed towards the fortress.
These were stone balls mined in the mountains with fuel wrapped around them, which were then ignited and thrown out by giant catapults. They could smash down brick walls and ignite houses in the city to cause fires. The catapults built by the highlanders were particularly large, and the flying stones emitted were heavy and had a long range, making them excellent siege weapons.
With no enemy in sight and no battle cries, dozens of flying stones whizzed over with flames. Even the strongest warriors would find it difficult to withstand this blow head-on, and the power of the first wave of attack was chilling. However, when the huge flintstones flew over the walls, the fortress seemed to turn into a mirror-like shadow, the air rippling and the shadow shaking for a while, as if wrapped in transparent waves of water.
The flintstones seemed to have shot into invisible water, and the flames extinguished, leaving only faint smoke. Their speed slowed down rapidly, and before they could cross the walls, they fell to the ground. Felix exclaimed in a low voice: "Magic formation! How many mages do they have? To be able to set up such a large formation! "
Lucien, the chief priest of the Giant Legion, stared with wide eyes, and it took a long time before he let out a long breath and said: "Lord Felix, that is a formation that covers the entire fortress, it was not set up by the mages temporarily. Similar to the defensive formation of our capital, Niveh, it is set up when the city is built and activated during battle, and it needs to be operated by mages. Looking at this scene, there must be a supreme mage presiding over it! "
Felix exclaimed: "A supreme mage? Could it be that there is a supreme mage in each of these two fortresses! Would they send a supreme mage here, and the city of Salem would not need to be defended? "
Lucien replied: "The chief priest of Salem, George, was originally the high priest of the Temple of Isis in Eygut, who knows what other tricks he has up his sleeves, and what other supreme mages he has recruited to work for him? This magic formation is really not small, Salem is quite rich, and there are experts guiding it. To build such a fortress, the investment of manpower, material, and financial resources is not a small amount! "
Felix said with a gloomy face: "Salem is indeed a good place, as long as we conquer it, all the gains in the future will belong to us."
The catapults were still firing fireballs, and plumes of green smoke rose from the sky on one side of the fortress. The air rippled like transparent water, and cracks appeared on the ground from the impact of the fireballs, then disappeared again, while the fortress remained unmoved, not even a scratch on the skin of the walls.
The chariots were lined up on a high platform, and the giants on the high platform had been aiming at the battlements above the walls with giant crossbows, but after aiming for a long time, their eyes were dazzled and their hands were sore, but not a single defending soldier appeared, and the arrows were nocked but could not find a target to shoot.
The frown on Felix's face grew deeper and deeper, and he asked the chief priest: "How should we fight this battle?"
Lucien mused: "If we don't break this magic formation, it will be very difficult for our long-range attacks to hurt the people in the city. But if the impact on the operation of the formation is too great, it will damage the parangons used to set up the formation, and they will need to replenish it at any time, and after a certain level, it will be difficult to continue, so this is a stupid way to attack by force. On the other hand, the formation must be activated by a mage, and such a formation must be presided over by a supreme mage. A mage cannot use magic power indefinitely, and as long as the other side is tired, the formation will stop, and then it will be our chance to attack the walls. "
Felix asked again: "Then how long do you think they can hold out?"
Lucien thought for a moment and replied: "With this situation, if I were presiding over the formation in the city, I would be able to hold out for half a day at most."
Felix: "So long!"
Lucien explained again: "This requires the cooperation of the mages, and the damaged parangons to be replenished in time. Under the current intensity of the attack, I can hold out for so long. But this is just a useless struggle, they can't kill us, and it's just a matter of time before they die. "
Felix said with dissatisfaction: "But with such a long consumption, it is not enough to simply use flying stones to blast the city, we also need to launch a strong attack."
Lucien: "I suggest waiting, there will be casualties when attacking the city, and the fewer the casualties, the better. Order the catapults not to scatter, but to concentrate in one direction, try to penetrate the defense of the formation, and also destroy the opponent's formation parangons. "
The flying stones suddenly stopped, and then the giant soldiers were seen adjusting the position and direction of the catapults, and when the second attack began, the huge fireballs flew towards a section of the city wall.
In another fortress in the distance, Link stood behind a window at the highest point of the fortress, watching from a distance as the Giant Legion concentrated on attacking the fortress where Raphael and El Mar were stationed, and said with a wry smile: "They really know how to choose a place to attack first, they probably didn't expect that there would be two supreme mages in such a small fortress, right? … Well, they really have a way, concentrating on one place to bombard the city. "
Beside him stood a general, originally one of Amon's personal guards, named Vanani, who had now become a general in the Salem Legion. General Vanani asked worriedly: "How long can Lord Raphael and Lord El Mar hold out?"
Link: "I don't know about Raphael, but El Mar's stamina is amazing, and it won't be a problem for him to hold out for three days on his own, and if Raphael takes turns presiding over the formation, he can certainly hold out for more than seven days. According to George's order, if the Giant Legion attacks the fortress, do everything you can to hold them off for seven days, I don't think there will be a problem. "
Vanani added: "The two lords are naturally fine, but the Giant Legion will not always attack with firestones, in that case, no matter how many firestones are stored, it won't be enough. I'm afraid that the number of parangons stored in the fortress is limited, and the other mages won't be able to hold out for that long. "
Link sneered: "If that fool Felix uses up all the firestones and heavy crossbow arrows in order to attack a fortress, then he won't have to attack Salem anymore, and it's best to use all the siege supplies here as well. Salem is not protected by a magic formation, that's Commander George's intention. As for the mages I've trained in the past two years, I'm afraid they won't be able to hold out, and it's time to test them. "
Link had also been training mages in the tribe for the past two years, testing trustworthy people and making them swear oaths to Amun. It was really difficult to awaken the power of two sides. Although there were twelve Judges out of more than sixty miners in the town of Duc, Link had only trained a few dozen mages out of thousands of people. These mages were awakened to the power of magic, but few could master the power of two sides.
The dozens of mages in Salem were divided into two groups by George, both of which were sent to the two fortresses to assist the supreme mages in operating the magic formation to protect the fortress.
In the underground hall of the central building of the fortress that was being attacked, Raphael was sitting with a staff in his hand, the parangons on the staff emitting bursts of light, showing the attack on the defensive formation. There were also ten mages sitting around him, half of whom were cavemen, and they were helping Raphael with the staff in their hands to operate the magic formation.
When the Giant Legion outside the city adjusted their attack and all the flying stones were concentrated in one direction, Raphael heard a faint shattering sound in his ears, and hurriedly ordered the mages resting in the fortress to replace the damaged parangons under the walls to keep the power of the magic formation from weakening.
There was a lot of fighting outside the city, but the fortress was still quiet, like a landscape in a mirror, unmoving in the light and shadow. The commander of the siege was a little impatient, and he ran to Felix's carriage and said: "The flying stones we prepared are to blast open the city of Salem, we can't go on like this, should we order a forceful attack? The soldiers in charge of the catapults are also tired. "
Felix replied calmly: "Let's continue the attack, the first wave of soldiers retreat to rest, the attack cannot be stopped, they should not be able to hold on any longer. Once the defense of the magic formation weakens, immediately launch a forceful attack, we cannot give the enemy a chance to catch their breath, inform the crossbowmen to prepare for battle, and shoot down all those who are exposed on the walls. "
The highlanders were good at hunting with heavy crossbows, and the Giant Legion who had been trained in battle formations were naturally more proficient in them. The crossbows of the giant warriors were powerful and had a long range, and they had always been a fearsome weapon on the battlefield, able to hit the enemy outside the range of the crossbows of ordinary warriors. The giant crossbowmen had been standing on the high platform for a long time.
In the fortress, El Mar walked into the underground hall. Today, she was wearing a red battle robe on top of the dark golden soft armor, looking particularly bright and eye-catching. She advised Raphael softly, "You must be tired, let me take over."
Raphael shook his head lightly. "I can still hold on, half of the mages should rest, let's rotate now." He ordered the mages around him to replace five of them.
El Mar advised again: "The Head of the Legion told us not to exhaust our strength at once, even if we can hold on, we should rest at the right time to last longer."
Raphael smiled. "I'm not that delicate, I'm stronger than you think. It's just that this magic formation cannot be blindly resisted, it has to be weakened appropriately, otherwise too many parangons will be damaged, and then it will really not be able to hold on. "
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