"Hoo... hoo..." Her lungs wheezed like an old bellows, her heart thumped, bringing a flush to her face.
Her sword-gripping hand had lost all strength.
Joan looked at King Arthur, who had fought hundreds of rounds with her without even a drop of sweat, and asked incredulously, "Hoo... hoo, how do you, hoo, have, hoo... so much strength?"
The other party revealed a strange smile, and a faint voice came from beside them: "If you set the nation's first female Grand Duchess as your goal, and started striving to become a Knight Marquis at ten years old, then after eight years of continuous training against excellent warriors, you should also possess this kind of strength."
It was the silver-haired man.
He smiled, holding a rose and sniffing it, his sidelong glance for some reason made a thought suddenly appear in Joan's mind: I have a fierce tiger in my heart, delicately sniffing a rose.
"Of course, your combat talent is also good," he said with a slightly pitying tone, "but having missed the optimal development period, your combat power will at most be at that level. However—your value lies in tactics; don't concern yourself with such unimportant things."
Kayal's words made Artoria frown unhappily, looking at him, clearly blaming him for his unguarded speech, as his verbal barrage had insulted all the knights.
He shrugged easily, his gaze on Joan: "So, Miss Joan, do you still not have the resolve to surrender?"
Her throat trembled twice, but she ultimately did not utter the timeless adage 'Give me liberty or give me death.' Instead, she closed her mouth, dropped the longsword in her hand, and sat on the ground, panting.
Yet, she still did not say the two words: 'I surrender.'
The honor in her heart kept her silent, which greatly troubled Kayal.
In other words, until she uttered the word'surrender' with genuine conviction, she could not be used by him.
Even if he were to offer lessons, he would never allow an enemy with such high combat talent, who might become his enemy in the future, to listen.
"Then I won't tie you up, Miss Joan, come with us now!"
Kayal shook his head slightly; a fair duel clearly hadn't convinced Joan.
Her heart still harbored Scotland, and a nation, unless completely annihilated, is fundamentally indelible.
It seems that to truly break Joan, these efforts are far from enough.
In fact, in Kayal's eyes, a nation is far less important than an individual.
For example, Yue Fei, who turned the tide of battle back then, or the Great Ancestor, who fought across thousands of miles.
While you can criticize the Great Ancestor's mistaken decisions in his old age, you can absolutely not deny the Great Ancestor's legendary life in his youth, which was like a protagonist's template.
(I won't elaborate here; those who want to know can look up the Great Ancestor's life themselves. A true man should be like the Great Ancestor!)
Now it seems, the nation of Scotland is far less important than the individual Joan.
If Joan knew that her excellence would bring catastrophic disaster to her nation, what expression would be on her face?
There are two ways for one country to occupy another: national integration or genocide.
In fact, England spent the 15th and 16th centuries trying to integrate Scotland and Ireland, but history proves that even now, Irish guerrillas are persistently resisting British invaders.
Therefore, the Western world has to regretfully admit that besides the Han Chinese, who, after the Five Barbarians Uprising and the Sixteen Kingdoms period, were still able to absorb and annex invaders and regain supremacy, there are no other peoples capable of national integration.
America's so-called freedom and democracy simply mean that everyone lives together under the umbrella of powerful military protection.
Once that umbrella collapses or breaks apart, those fifty states will face complete secession.
Therefore, Americans can only continuously increase, increase, and further increase their military spending.
And since it's impossible to annex Scotland's 1.5 million population and 1 million workforce, Kayal had no qualms about issuing orders for a massacre.
Since the war began, Scotland's 50,000 knights were decisively defeated by Kayal, and the heavily fortified town of Bradford, with a population of 100,000, was also brought under Kayal's control.
In other words, besides these 100,000 people, the Rangers, utilizing their numerical advantage, killed a good number of people.
According to the collected ears, the Rangers brought back hundreds of thousands of ears, roughly around 80,000.
And here, there are about 130,000.
This is one-tenth of Scotland's population.
Although 20,000 of these 130,000 were knights sent to do hard labor, it is clear that one-tenth of the population did not completely cripple the Kingdom of Scotland.
In this battle, a total of 300,000 troops were deployed by both sides: 200,000 on Joan's side and 100,000 on the King of Scotland's side.
However, through an internal conflict, first 100,000 disappeared from the battlefield, and then 200,000 were trampled to death, leaving only 50,000.
(This includes those who pursued them, killing and shooting; it is initially estimated that the knights killed at least 30,000 to 50,000, with the rest being trampled to death by themselves.)
Finally, the Camelot Red Leaf Ridge heavy infantry, relying on the natural geographical barrier, slaughtered the 50,000 Scottish who tried to escape.
Calculating this, Scotland, which originally had only 1.5 million people, now has only 1.2 million, with 200,000 of them under Camelot's rule.
In other words, what remains to be faced is a Scotland with only 1 million people, no one left to fight, and completely undefended.
However, even though it was undefended, Kayal did not immediately attack the interior of Scotland.
Instead, he began to clear the battlefield—it was no joke, the weapons of both sides, combined with Camelot's population, could arm an army of tens of thousands.
Moreover, Camelot lacked iron, and many weapons were bronze, a mixture of tin and copper.
Although Kayal had improved bronze to significantly enhance its sharpness and toughness, iron weapons were clearly superior in quality and durability compared to bronze weapons.
Possessing such a batch of weapons and armor would save a lot of time in the future; now was the time to clear the battlefield.
Wild dogs, civets, and vultures were driven away, and what was collected were ears, weapons, and clothes.
—To be honest, those tattered linen clothes were not even considered by them.
The advantage of nobles serving in the military was strict discipline; their sense of honor would drive them to restrain themselves from committing crimes, looting, and similar acts.
This is something ordinary people cannot compare to.
If Kayal hadn't ordered it, they probably wouldn't even have killed these commoners, would they?
As for stripping them of their clothes and money, such acts, unless ordered by the lord, were against the code of chivalry.
Therefore, Kayal, being very confident in the discipline of these men, indulged the knights so much; otherwise, he would have demobilized them long ago!
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