For the next few days, Laing and the others really had nothing to do and were waiting for the High Elves to organize an army. They enjoyed themselves and enjoyed themselves. With the Phoenix Brooch given to them by the Phoenix King, Finnuba, they toured the entire outer city of Lotharn.
Especially after they opened their hearts to each other, Laing and Suria's relationship was now almost as sweet as honey. The couple would go shopping during the day and visit the various tourist attractions of the High Elves. At night, the Lake Fairy, Suria, and Olica would take turns, making Laing's life very enjoyable. Of course, Suria got the most love, which made the Lake Fairy and Olica unhappy.
Of course, the secret investigation was not idle. Laing and Forgen did spend a lot of effort trying to get close to the great wall of the inner city when they visited Lotharn, but they were all detected by the High Elves. However, the High Elves naturally thought that it was just a monkey who had not seen the world and admired the Assur culture, which was in line with their character, so they did not pay too much attention.
Indeed, as Olica said, the great wall was heavily guarded and could not be broken through. More importantly, Laing could not teleport in because Laing could not teleport to a place that he could not sense. Simply put, if Laing did not have a vision or left a mark in advance, he could not use long-distance psionic teleportation. It was very dangerous.
What was even more annoying was that the messenger sent by the High Elves, Arsène the Scholar, was like a piece of dog skin plaster. As long as Laing wanted to go out, he would appear at the door of the hotel with a smile on his face and find a reason to follow him. It was difficult to find an excuse to get rid of him. Now, whenever Laing said that he wanted to go on a date, Arsène would have an "I understand" look on his face and follow him from afar. This guy was really good. He could follow him from a block away with a monocular.
Just like that, about a week passed. Finally, the Lake Fairy came up with a solution.
"Review the army?" In the war council, Tyrion was distressed about his predicament. When he heard Tegris' question, he was stunned. Why are you asking me this at this juncture?
What's wrong with my oak-headed brother? Or did his goddess, Lilith, suddenly have another idea?
However, the War Overlord thought about it carefully.
Princess Etilla of the Kingdom of Taranlock and Azarion of the Kingdom of Iris had arrived with their armies. At his call, the Eternal Queen's chief maid, Ysijona, also led an army from the Kingdom of Avalon to Lothar. However, Tyrion didn't dare to ask for too much. Even though he was the Eternal Queen's lover and the Chosen One champion, the Eternal Queen was the cultural symbol and supreme leader of the High Elves. If Tyrion really mobilized the Kingdom of Avalon, the High Elves would send impeachment letters to Finnuba's desk like snowflakes. Tyrion also couldn't make things difficult for Finnuba. Otherwise, it wouldn't be easy to find a Phoenix King who could rule the High Elves. For the High Elves, conspiracies were a habit and instinct.
Just two days ago, Tyrion and Imrik had a heated argument in the war council.
Tyrion asked the Kingdom of Kaldor to send troops. As the most powerful kingdom in Ossouin, the Kingdom of Kaldor's participation in the surprise attack on the Shipwreck Graveyard was the key to victory.
The High Elves' fleet needed dragons too much. Without dragons, the two fleets would lose.
It wasn't that Imrik didn't agree to Tyrion's request, but the Prince of Kaldor made a few demands.
First, Imrik had to be the commander of this war, and he had to have Finnuba's official letter of appointment.
Second, Kaldor's dragon emblem and flag had to be used in the war, and the Dragon Princes had to be the ones to give orders.
Tyrion couldn't agree to these conditions, so the two sides naturally parted on bad terms.
After that, Tyrion asked Imrik to send troops, and Imrik began.
"I also want to send troops, but Kaldor doesn't have enough military equipment. We need more iron ore and rare ores for the Vaal Anvil to produce. Otherwise, it would take at least ten years for the Vaal Anvil to produce enough supplies."
"The army is gathering, but we've encountered a lot of difficulties. Our equipment and mounts are seriously damaged. Since the Phoenix King's Court wants Kaldor to send troops, shouldn't the Phoenix King's Court supply all the supplies?"
"How about this? We'll send five Dragon Princes and two hundred elites to join the war lord's army. When the rest of the supplies arrive, we'll send the Kaldor army out."
Tyrion was disgusted by Imrik's words, but the war lord couldn't do anything about it.
Tyrion understood why Imrik was so disgusting. There was an unwritten tradition in Ossouin, probably set by the Phoenix King, Kaldor I. That was, if Ossouin wanted to gather an army and needed the power of the dragons in the Kaldor Kingdom and the Kaldor Volcano, then the command of the army would be handed over to the Dragon Princes of Kaldor.
However, Tyrion couldn't hand over the command of the army to Imrik no matter what, so there was no solution to this problem. How could it be so easy to ask Imrik to send troops and dragons, and not give him the command of the army?
In the end, Tyrion could only look for Finnuba and say that the regular army could no longer meet the current needs of the Burial Ship Cemetery expedition, and that they needed to recruit conscripts.
Finnuba didn't think too much about it, or rather, the Phoenix King couldn't refuse the war lord's request. The imperial edict was quickly issued, and the Phoenix King's Court recruited conscripts from all of Ossouin. At the request of the war lord, the elite army quickly gathered more than sixty thousand people, and they were now gathered in Lothern, ready to set off.
At this time, Teglis suggested to Tyrion: "Since we need the help of those humans, shouldn't we let them see the power that belongs to us, Assur? Let them see our military discipline? "
Tyrion thought that this didn't seem like his brother's idea, but it was quite in line with Tyrion's inner thoughts. Besides, the Kaldor Kingdom was unwilling to contribute, and they had to rely on the power of the ironclad warships, so he agreed.
At the beginning of November 2513 of the Empire Calendar, on this day in the 350th year of the Finnuba Calendar, Laing and Suria led dozens of officers of the Old Guard, while Forgen led his personal guards, the Phoenix Guards, and finally got permission to enter the inner city.
In the inner city of the high elves, tens of thousands of elite troops gathered, wearing silver helmets and silver armor, and murderous intent.
It was difficult to describe the strong sense of order and organization of the high elves in words. When the high elves trained and marched in square formations, it was like an art. The high elves' high personal quality made Laing drool. The Knight King thought more than once that it would be great if the serf infantry in his territory could be of this standard.
Of course, Laing also knew that it was impossible.
Elite professional soldiers and semi-professional regular soldiers were the minority in the High Elven Army. Most of them were still High Elven conscripts, or in fact, elite militia. However, after a discussion between Ryan and Forgan, Ryan was certain that even elite militia were far more powerful than the semi-professional soldiers under his command, the provincial army of the Empire, or the serf infantry regiments. When the High Elven Army advanced, the elite militia who were equipped with silver helmets, breastplates, armor skirts, shields, spears, or bows actually gave off a sense of oppression and sternness like a torrent of steel. In this aspect, apart from the knights, only the old guards and the Coldstream Guards under Ryan's command had such qualities. As for Forgan, only the First Army, the Jaeger Regiment, and the elite Yenicheli Regiment under Mage Jinn could compare to them. Forgan's subordinates were limited to the First Army, the Jaeger Regiment, and the elite Yenicheli Regiment under Jinn.
However, the quality and combat ability of the so-called elite conscripts still made Leon, Sulia, Fulgen, and the others envious. Fulgen was certain that if he had such a source of soldiers, it would only be a matter of time before he flattened Lucia's rats, vampires, and Chaos tribes.
Unfortunately, it was impossible. For elite conscripts, their training often began with the identity of "white-crowned archers". These elven militia would spend decades honing their swordsmanship and archery skills to begin their service. After decades or even hundreds of years of service, the conscripts would begin to change from archers to spearmen, forming spear formations and spear fortresses. Every movement of the elite spearmen in the formation was like a carefully choreographed dance. At the same time, they would cover each other with their shields to provide protection, and then freely swing their spears at the enemy's cracked frontline.
Then, after decades to hundreds of years of training and expeditions, the outstanding ones would be incorporated into the ranks of the Rothern Sea Guards and the local regular troops.
Unlike the spear formations of other weak races, the elite phalanx's uniform movements were often completed without orders or gestures. Every elite soldier instinctively understood the thoughts of their comrades around them and acted without hesitation.
This kind of training and long accumulation meant that it was impossible for humans to have conscripts of this level.
The officers of the Old Guard and the Phoenix Guards under Forgen were also amazed by the elite's military ability.
"It is indeed an elite army," Laing said to Forgen. "The elves are still something."
"If they didn't have this quality, they would have been finished long ago." Forgen nodded. "Don't underestimate these ancient races at any time."
War Lord Tyrion and Princess Terenroc were obviously very satisfied with this scene. Seeing this, Tyrion took the initiative to speak to Laing and Forgen. "Your Majesty, Commander, look at the soldiers in Azur's camp. Are they majestic?"
"Every one of them is like a wolf or a tiger." Laing laughed along with Tyrion's tone.
"Do you think there is enough food in the camp?" Tyrion continued to ask. The War Lord was very satisfied. He then pointed at the mountain of food in the camp.
"There is indeed enough food and soldiers." Laing continued to smile.
"Good!" Tyrion saw that Laing was so tactful, and he could not help but think more highly of him. "Please take a seat. I will go and arrange it."
After that, Tyrion took his men and left, leaving only Laing and the other two sitting together.
"My lady, what do you think?" Laing watched Tyrion leave and only smiled. He held Suria's hand and asked his wife, "What do you think? Elite troops? "
"An elite army may be powerful, but I think that the compulsory military system shows how far the elite army has fallen." Suria picked up her teacup elegantly. "I can only say that it is a miracle that the high elves and dark elves have been fighting for thousands of years without social order collapsing."
"Hahahaha!" Laing and Forgen laughed. Forgen could not help but nod at Suria. "Beautiful!"
Was the conscript system powerful? Of course, it was very powerful. The conscript system had a short period of service, regular conscription and discharge, easy rotation, and was conducive to the renewal of the standing army. It not only kept the army young and strong, but also allowed more people to serve in the army. At the same time, it allowed more people to serve in the army, making the burden of the conscript system fair and reasonable. The Phoenix King, "Boor King" Moville, had built a very deadly army through the conscript system, which became the decisive force in defending Ossouin.
However, Laing's clever queen, Suria, had seen through the surface and saw the weakness of the high elves behind the conscript system.
The military system of the High Elves was roughly divided into three stages. The watershed between the first and second stage was the Battle of the Long Whiskers. Before the Battle of the Long Whiskers, all the High Elves' armies were completely independent elite professional armies. After the crushing defeat of the Battle of the Long Whiskers and the loss of all the elites, the Butcher King Tesiris established a standing army system, which was a recruitment system. The elite army began to evolve into semi-professional soldiers.
After that, during the reign of the Boor King Moville, the conscript system could no longer meet the needs of the war in the face of the long war with the dark elves. Moville established the conscript system, which directly recruited a large number of new soldiers from the civilians. Every elite citizen had to prepare their own weapons and armor, and spend a small portion of their time in the military service every year.
It could be seen that the high elves' military and military capabilities were in fact, constantly declining.
Laing knew very well that the conscript system was indeed very powerful. It could obtain a large number of soldiers, and at the same time, it did not cost too much like the conscript system. It was simply the ideal military service system for the monarchs.
However, there was a problem here. The conscript system was closely related to the entire social order, which meant that it was best for the monarchs not to "mess around" too much.
What did that mean? It meant that they could not recruit conscripts too frequently and on a large scale. This would lead to large-scale losses and bankruptcy of the main body of the conscripts — the farmers and the middle class. It was fine to recruit conscripts on a large scale every seven to eight years, or even more so, if they only knew how to recruit conscripts for large-scale military operations all day long, the number of conscripts would rapidly decline, and the entire social order would collapse.
In Laing's previous life, Emperor Wu of Han had completely destroyed the solid foundation that his father and grandfather had accumulated over the past 40 years. This led to the collapse of the conscript system, and the collapse of social order. The two million refugees in the Eastern Pass basically went bankrupt in this way. From the beginning to the end of his reign, the population of the dynasty had decreased by more than four million people.
Ryan knew that many people did not like that. What they liked was great talent and bold vision, great unification, the submission of all the countries, being the king of Qi (declaring war on all the forces), and marching into a great battle without considering the logistics. Ryan also understood everyone's desire to make contributions. But from another perspective, what if you were a compulsory soldier who was called up for a great expedition every one or two years, and all the manpower and material resources needed for the war were transferred to you? What if you were a compulsory soldier who was called up for a great expedition every year or two, and all the manpower and material resources needed for the war were transferred to you?
Wasn't it too miserable to be such a peasant?
Laing was not against the conscript system and the great unification. He just knew that the conscript system had to take care of the people's strength. Humans were not chaotic and unreasonable, nor were they like the Green Skins who could reproduce as they pleased. Therefore, after the great expedition of Ba Feng Mountain, he formulated a series of national policies to recuperate and was firmly against launching another war against Obien.
Just like what Suria said, the elites were not the dark elites. They were a military society that encouraged a large number of births and a slave society that relied on wars to make a fortune. With the low birth rate and slow recruitment rate of the elites, it was already a miracle that the conscript system set by the Boor King Moville had not collapsed.
"I heard that you are a Knight King?" Laing was still thinking when Princess Terenlock, a member of the war council, overheard the strange conversation between Laing and the others. The young princess, who had successfully defeated the "Beauty" Prince Sigwald, was obviously very displeased. Fully armed, she strode to Laing and said coldly, "Since when did outsiders have the right to judge the affairs of our Assur?"
"What? Let me evaluate the combat strength of the high elves. Do you think I have pointy ears? " Laing was obviously unhappy that he was interrupted. He snapped at the unfamiliar elven princess in front of him. "Or do you think I'm not qualified?"
"Whether I'm qualified or not, we'll only know after we fight!" Princess Terenlock was instantly furious. She thought to herself that the monkey was indeed a monkey. The princess drew her sword and stabbed it into the ground in front of Laing. "Just as well. The war lord needs some time to prepare. Why don't we have a duel? A duel of honor? "
Under the playful gaze of Forgen and Suria, Laing was also excited. Knight King stood up.
"Okay, come on!"
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