"Kailar's calculations were not wrong." Grand Duke Andrei looked at the girl with a loving gaze. That wasn't the Empress; the Empress had other important matters. As the final hidden force, the Knights and the Empress would not move.
That person was not the Empress, but she was the Empress's closest person, and also Kailar's closest person: Mordred. Perhaps before, Grand Duke Andrei would have furiously sought to kill Merlin, but after getting to know Mordred, in terms of bloodline, she was indeed a genuine royal, and in terms of relationship, she was indeed his granddaughter.
Unlike Artoria's strength and Kailar's gentleness, Mordred's innocence made her cherished in the castle, especially by Lady Marcy, who practically raised Mordred as her own granddaughter.
Because of this, even though Kailar didn't spend much time looking after Mordred, Mordred loyally carried out Kailar's order: impersonate Artoria to become the spiritual pillar for the new recruits and block the Barbarians' attack. The plan was going very successfully; they had successfully pinned the enemy in place, but… it was so tiring!
Exhaling, her gaze swept across the seemingly endless formations of Barbarians. No, they couldn't be called formations; they were just a chaotic mess, but it was precisely this chaos that caused heavy losses for the Red Leaf Ridge forces.
"How many people are left?" Thirty thousand, twenty thousand, or even fewer?
"Thirty-five thousand two hundred people," a Knight said. More than expected. Why?
Eyes filled with fanaticism gathered on her. Ah, is that so, Mother's power? Is this Mother's power? Even I, a fake, can still clearly sense this power.
So powerful, and so formidable. As expected of Mother, isn't it?!
But I can't lose either!
Just mere Barbarians, bring it on!!!
The attack, it began again… How many people did they have? Was it another three ten-thousand-man units?
Grand Duke Andrei looked at the crumbling city wall, then turned his head to Kailar's statistics disciple, "Their numbers are…?"
"According to intelligence, the Empress annihilated a ten-thousand-man unit of theirs halfway. Over these three days, we have repelled five ten-thousand-man unit attacks from them. According to my teacher's calculations… they will start to face difficulties this afternoon," Haibu Weier said with a smile. When he spoke of Kailar, an irrepressible light of admiration shone in his eyes; he had an inexplicable, strange confidence in Kailar's plan.
"I hope that's the case." Grand Duke Andrei was an old soldier; he had more experience in looking at things, especially military matters, than Kailar and the others. Things weren't necessarily as Kailar predicted; it depended on the commander's personality. If the opponent was full of tenacity, it might not be impossible for them to hold on for another two days, and the pressure of those two days would fall on these new recruits.
His worried gaze fell upon these new recruits who fanatically worshipped "Empress Artoria." Grand Duke Andrei deeply knew that worship could not be used as food, as stamina, or as concentration to endure. How much longer could these new recruits last?!
Grand Duke Andrei's worries were not unfounded; the enemy's attacks became more urgent due to food shortages. One reason was the food shortage, and another was that if these people broke through the city, that would be one thing, but if they died at the city gates, it would also save food. The saying "a kind heart does not command an army" illustrates this principle. The three commanders and Grand Duke Andrei all saw this plan, but everyone fell silent. No matter what, the city absolutely could not fall!
Grand Duke Andrei was silent for a moment, then waved his hand: "Order: Five thousand Red Leaf Guards to the city wall, thirty thousand militiamen to rest."
"Yes," a Knight ordered.
Two minutes later, the Barbarians suddenly found that everything was different.
The enemies were completely different!
Too wicked!
First, the dense rain of arrows, seemed a bit different? The dense arrow rain was still as thick, but what exactly was different?
No screams anymore!
That's right! Too quiet!
The entire battlefield was filled with the sound of "thwack, thwack, thwack," but not a single scream was heard. This was too eerie, too terrifying.
The Barbarians couldn't help but look at their companions beside them.
Their unwilling faces only held the expression of the moment before death, and on their bodies… throats, hearts, eyeballs… four arrows, no more, no less, precisely as if carved from the same mold. If it were just one person or a dozen, this might not be much, but when tens of thousands across the entire battlefield died this way, it was too terrifying.
Finally, the Barbarians, who had been oblivious to death and fear, began to scatter. After four days of general assault, they finally began to experience a mental breakdown.
Naturally, these fleeing fellows were executed. A total of seventy thousand people were left forever in Camelot, which was already nearly half of their total number. Even the Barbarians had to be terrified by such casualties.
But it was also thanks to the seventy thousand who were dragged to their deaths that the Barbarians' logistical pressure began to ease.
"I think we should bypass this damned city and continue to plunder the next city!" Brown slammed the wooden table, making a loud noise. It was fortunate that Camelot's items were of good quality, otherwise it would have fallen apart long ago.
"If we had bypassed this city from the beginning, we would probably be feasting in other cities by now, wouldn't we?!" Brown shouted, "It's impossible for all cities to be as strong as this one! We just need to bypass it, and then we can easily solve the food problem!"
"But what if they sally forth and cut off our retreat?" Inglish asked, glancing at him with disdain.
"Uh," after being speechless, he immediately shouted in exasperation: "That's good! We don't need a retreat! We're going to turn Camelot upside down! We're going to conquer Camelot!" Brown yelled, his words quite inflammatory, immediately causing the Barbarians in the tent to howl.
"Idiot!" Inglish shouted: "Even if we want to annihilate Camelot, we must leave a retreat, otherwise, it won't be us annihilating them, but them surrounding us!"
"Warriors are not afraid of being surrounded!" Brown pounded his chest, making solid thumping sounds.
"Then how about Lord Brown breaks through this city?" Bonaparte asked with a hint of sarcasm, pointing at Red Leaf Ridge.
"!" Brown angrily slammed the table and stood up. Before he could speak, Inglish interrupted: "Enough. What we need to discuss now is: should we continue to attack this damned city, or bypass it and attack Camelot proper?"
"The good news is, this damned city has deployed its reserve forces; they can't hold on much longer."
"The bad news is, we don't know how much longer they can hold on!"
"So, what will you choose?" Kailar gently toyed with the jade-like chess pieces, placing the Queen in front of the King. "Checkmate!"