Perhaps, the Snake Worship Cult priestesses of the Pande Continent Cobra faction feel that they have been deceived...
They put in considerable efforts to attack Imperial Port, not only diverting Bacchus Empire's attention with Red Death, but also gathering a large army.
But after they began to attack Imperial Port on the agreed September date, the Viper faction expeditionary force that had agreed to attack simultaneously from the sea did not even see a hair.
It wasn't until mid-October that a few warships came from the Amara Continent, but they were all miscellaneous troops who didn't have enough to eat. Their combat effectiveness was quite poor, and they couldn't attack the port at all...
High Priest's main fleet has not appeared until now, and all those who have come are some miscellaneous troops fleeing the famine - the expeditionary army's rations have been burned, and in order to raise food, High Priest is forcibly asking the believers to 'donate'.
But Amara Continent has been suffering from a famine for a long time. Although the believers have loyal beliefs, they are really powerless.
Under the "forced dedication", many believers robbed or stole several warships and came to the Pande Continent - this can probably be regarded as supporting the expedition with practical actions, although the believers only thought of the Pande Continent to make a living.
This is why the Snake Worship Cult fleet that came to Imperial Port did not find another place to land - they had no food and simply did not dare to sail to find a landing site. They are currently fishing near Imperial Port for a living, and their life is worse than the defenders inside Imperial Port...
As a result, the Cobra sect priestesses gathered outside Imperial Port have persisted from September to now, fighting from autumn to winter, and fought for more than three consecutive months, but they still have not seen the main fleet of High Priest arrive at Imperial Port.
But they heard that Fear Legion did appear in the Pande Continent, but the problem is that Fear Legion went to Siyuan City and did not appear in Imperial Port...
Under such circumstances, they certainly felt that the Temple Priest Council was deceiving them, and they no longer wanted to fight anymore.
But they dare not withdraw their troops. If they disobey the temple's order and abandon their colleagues from the Amara Continent on the warships outside the port, Fear Legion may suddenly appear in their lair one day to 'punish the traitors who disobey the orders'...
Therefore, these priestesses were actually very restrained at first, and their attack on Imperial Port was not violent, which meant that they did not work hard enough.
And they are all rich. Unlike Amara Continent, Pande Continent did not suffer from famine. The priestesses had obtained a large amount of food before and were not afraid to waste it around Imperial Port.
In fact, it doesn't matter to them whether they can defeat Imperial Port. After all, if High Priest's fleet never comes, what's the point of even if they capture Imperial Port?
Attacking Imperial Port is the order of the temple, but it may not be a good thing for them after capturing Imperial Port, because the temple will definitely not let Imperial Port be controlled by people from the Cobra faction.
If the temple lets people from the Viper Faction manage Imperial Port, wouldn't this mean that the Cobra Faction is causing trouble for itself?
But a few days ago, they heard that Erudition City's slave rebel army had lifted the siege, and that a large army was moving south to reinforce Imperial Port - they found that this was an opportunity to get rid of the current embarrassing situation.
Imperial Port cannot be attacked for a long time, and there is a large army rushing to support Bax, so staying outside Imperial Port is definitely not a wise choice.
But if you turn around and attack Erudition City... this can definitely be regarded as a proper explanation of the temple's order, both in terms of face and appearance.
Since Erudition City has sent a large army to support Imperial Port, it means that Erudition City is now extremely empty. It is definitely more cost-effective to attack Erudition City than to attack Imperial Port.
Moreover, for the priestesses of the Cobra faction, capturing Erudition City is much more attractive than capturing Imperial Port - Erudition City is in the hinterland, and the temple of the Amara Continent will definitely not be able to send a fleet to compete with them for control.
Anyway, occupying Erudition City is equivalent to establishing a base within the territory of Bax. No matter what happens to Imperial Port in the end, at least they are worthy of the order of the temple.
The priestesses of the Pande Continent are indeed loyal to Snake Worship Cult. They will also obey the orders of the temple, but they will not do it blindly.
Therefore, their troops marched north before, originally to attack Erudition City.
As for why they came after the Sigismund team of scouts, this was mainly due to the combat habits of the Snake Worship Cult disciples - if they encountered an enemy, regardless of the enemy's goal and size, they would immediately use overwhelming numbers to overwhelm all obstacles along the way.
These Snake Worship Cult disciples are not regular troops, and most of the priestesses are not very good at tactics. The Snake Worship Cult disciples do not have the clear combat intentions of the regular army. After determining the general direction, they will migrate there like locusts.
Therefore, when the Snake Worship Cult disciples came after the scout team of Sigismund, they were not actually targeting the lord's reinforcements. They were just going north from Imperial Port, but the lord's troops happened to be on the way.
Sigismund and the gladiators obviously don't understand Snake Worship Cult's behavior and habits, and neither does the lord.
Sometimes, many battles that occur inexplicably are due to these strange factors, and even seem quite unreasonable in the eyes of onlookers, but they just happen.
Fortunately, Elisa appeared here, and the former priestess gave her judgment on the current situation.
She doesn't understand the lord culture of the Pande Continent, but she does understand the mentality of the priestesses very well.
She is right, her understanding of the Snake Worship Cult disciples is indeed very helpful for a commander to formulate strategies and tactics.
If it weren't for meeting her, the lord would probably have fought a head-on battle with the Snake Worship Cult army in Buyulin Village - a head-on battle with tens of thousands of guys who are not afraid of death. The outcome is really hard to say.
But now, Li Ang thinks that he can avoid it first and use more technical methods to destroy this group of Snake Worship Cult disciples.
Anyway, Imperial Port has indeed come out of the siege. The strategic intention of the lord to rescue Imperial Port has been realized, although the realization is somewhat inexplicable...
What needs to be considered now is how to kill those female priests - according to Elisa, as long as the priests, the 'spokesmen of the gods', are removed, other Snake Worship Cult disciples will usually not take the initiative to cause trouble.
"Sir Governor, since Snake Worship Cult's large troops are heading towards Erudition City, then we can completely make way for them and then use cavalry to ambush them... and your infantry troops can still enter Imperial Port as originally planned."
The lord seems to be more relaxed now. Since the Snake Worship Cult disciples do not have any tactical ability, even if they are not afraid of death, they are just a group of brave locusts.
"Li Ang, do you think that snake girl's words are trustworthy? If she is a liar..."
Justus is somewhat uneasy, and he is skeptical about anything Snake Worship Cult's disciples say.
"If Elisa is deceiving us, then we should give way... Anyway, Buyulin Village is just an empty village with no one, and it doesn't matter even if it is occupied by Snake Worship Cult. Don't worry about the gains and losses of one city and one place. The goal is to eliminate Snake Worship Cult. Now we only need to consider how to avoid the eyes and ears of Snake Worship Cult..."
Li Ang turned around and looked around Buyulin Village. There were indeed no civilians here anymore.
"Then... you make the arrangements, and I will cooperate with your orders."
Justus handed over the command to Li Ang.
"Then, let's move west first, in the direction of Serendil, to avoid Snake Worship Cult's army - since the Snake Worship Cult warriors who escorted Elisa can lurk in Serindil Village for more than a month, it means that we should be able to avoid Snake Worship Cult's eyes and ears there, and move ourselves to the dark..."
Li Ang drew two lines on the map. "Then, my troops went north from Serendil to set up an ambush at Fidne. If they want to go to Erudition City, they must pass through Fidne... and the Governor Sir, after confirming that Snake Worship Cult's army has left the surroundings of Imperial Port, you will lead your troops directly into Imperial Port, then lead Imperial Port's troops north, and join me in a flanking attack on Snake Worship Cult."
"Erudition City, don't let anything happen..."
Justus is obviously still very nervous about his territory.
"I guarantee that no Snake Worship Cult disciple can enter Erudition City alive."
Li Ang pointed towards the south road. "Hurry up, Snake Worship Cult troops may be coming soon."
Fortunately, all the troops had been making preparations and responded very quickly. Not long after, Buyulin Village became empty again.
Just a few minutes after the troops evacuated Buyulin Village, Snake Worship Cult's large troops swarmed past like locusts crossing the border, and the endless crowd passed through the deserted Buyulin Village and headed northwest.
Serendil.
This is an extremely quiet, eerie, and extremely miserable village.
In the era when Kingdom of Pendor ruled the mainland, Serindil Village was originally a large-scale market town.
This was originally the largest fishing port in the Pande Continent. There used to be countless fishing boats coming and going, and there were fishing nets hanging out to dry everywhere on the coast.
This fishing port located in the south of the Pande Continent would have been very busy in winter - as the temperature drops, the northern seas will freeze, and a large number of fish will migrate to the southern coast.
At the same time, high-value seafood such as various types of pearls are also harvested in winter. As the weather gets colder, the secretion of nacre by pearl-breding mussels will gradually slow down, which can cause the surface of pearls to gradually become delicate and rounded. The quality of pearls harvested in mid-winter or early spring is the best.
This was originally an excellent place. Not only was there fishing all year round, but it also had the largest pearl production area in Pandor.
However, the richer the place, the more miserable the lives of the people at the bottom are often, especially after the Bacchus Empire ruled this place...
After the Bacchus Empire occupied the southern part of the Pande Continent, Serendil gradually owned the most iron piles and chains in the entire Pande Continent.
These iron stakes and chains were originally used to chain slaves.
In the Bacchus Empire, all the hard work in the fishing process is naturally done by slaves. Of course, slaves also do the work that can easily lead to death, such as diving to catch pearls or corals.
However, the slaves couldn't even get the clam shells for Yuzhu.
To ensure that slaves would not sneak away these precious catches, slave owners would lock their necks with iron collars.
When going to sea, the slaves would be tied to the ship with long iron chains. When not going to sea, the iron chains would be locked to the iron piles on the coast - the iron piles were also used to lock the ship.
The range of movement of most slaves throughout their lives is the area limited by the iron chains.
Either on a boat, in the sea, or by an iron pile on the coast.
They can only dive into the water again and again, being taken to the deep seabed by thick iron chains, struggling between life and death to find the gifts of the sea.
If they fail to complete their tasks that day, they will not be pulled onto the ship and will have to soak in the sea.
The slave owners wouldn't even give them any food - the slaves would eat locally in the sea, and cooked food was a luxury reward for them.
The vast majority of slaves do not survive more than three years in Serendil, and the conditions of slaves here are even worse than those in the mines.
This miserable life will naturally lead to more tragedies.
This is also the area where Pande Continent was first controlled by Snake Worship Cult.
Snake Worship Cult can easily control most of the slaves of Serendil without using any means, and then lead them to rebel and cause rebellion, and be killed again and again.
For more than a hundred years, tragedies have been circulating here from generation to generation - slave owners brutally exploited slaves, Snake Worship Cult bewitched the slaves at the bottom, slaves began to rebel after believing in Snake Worship Cult, and were then annihilated by the imperial army... After the chaos of Snake Worship Cult was quelled, new slave owners would arrive in the empire, and the same story would be repeated again.
The scourge of war again and again made Serendil become more and more desolate year by year. Eventually, it became a 'cursed' place in people's eyes, and this fishing port gradually ceased to be inhabited.
It is said that countless ghosts haunt this place at night, and there are too many evil spirits of all kinds, making it very haunted.
Therefore, it is also called Ghost Port here.
There have been brave people who have tried to come to Serendil, hoping to catch valuable pearls, but most of the people who enter this 'cursed place' disappear without explanation.
By now, Serindil Village has become a dilapidated and gloomy ruin, with a large area and many houses, but no people.
Only the rusty iron piles and chains scattered along the coast still tell the story of the prosperous and sad past of this fishing port.
This is why those Snake Worship Cult warriors were able to hide in Serendil with Elisa for more than a month without being discovered.
This once prosperous fishing port is now almost completely deserted.
This is not a military location, and generally no one will come near it.
Li Ang led his army to Serendil, and was indeed able to avoid Snake Worship Cult's eyes easily - the surrounding area of this fishing port was also an uninhabited wasteland. Since there was no one, Snake Worship Cult would naturally not know their movements.
After Risadiran took the Noldos to confirm that there were no problems around Serendil, the lord planned to repair here for a day, and then split up with Justus to act as planned.
Although this place is suspected of being haunted, of course you are not afraid of ghosts with an army...
But what the Lord did not expect was that something unexpected happened to him after he only stayed at Serendil for one night.
The wind was particularly strong that night. The howling wind stirred up huge waves on the sea. The sound of the huge waves kept echoing, making it difficult to sleep even hundreds of meters away from the coast.
Since the army is stationed, there will naturally be troops keeping vigil at night. The person in charge of the night watch is Sigismund.
Also, Sarah is here.
But Sarah did not have a night watch duty. She was just unable to sleep due to the noise of the wind and waves, so she came to see the sea and chat with Sigismund. The bard wanted to take some material from Sigismund's experience and compile it into a poem. She believed that the story of 'Commoner Knights' was worth remembering.
Therefore, while most of the soldiers on duty were looking in other directions, Sarah and Sigismund were sitting on the beach, watching the wind blowing in the night sea.
But the wind was really strong, and Sarah's cloak and shawl were almost blown off.
But just when Sarah was about to hide in Sigismund's tent to take shelter from the wind, she vaguely saw several huge black shadows on the sea.
"What is that...Sinclair, did you see it? Is that a sea monster?"
Sarah put on his shawl again, covering his round shoulders and the tempting ravine exposed by his neckline.
Sigismund sighed with regret.
"No... Vixen, that seems to be... that's a warship! Blow the trumpet! Enemy attack!"
Sigismund closed his eyes and shook his head, then looked at the sea in the distance again, and then shouted loudly.