In order to control Phoenix Knight Order, Titus did not go to Siyuan City, but put his idea into action.
Taking advantage of the fact that Sava Fortress was attacked, he once again provoked a revenge war against the Lionheart Kingdom and Duchy of Dexia.
He took Phoenix Knight Order and attacked Lionheart Kingdom in the name of "revenge", wandered around Lion Territory, and provoked Sir Rayman who was stationed at Seven Forks Fortress.
Later, he went to Turdah Fortress in Duchy of Dexia, killed many Dexian peoples, and seduced several Desha lords.
He wants to provoke a large-scale war between the three countries.
Because the three forces will involve each other, for the purpose that Titus wants to achieve, this will actually be better than facing only one hostile force.
Regardless of the timing of causing a large-scale war, this tactical idea is actually good. It can induce enemies to kill each other, expand the scale of the war, and then sit on a fortified city like Sava Fortress to seize chestnuts from the fire.
This was originally to turn Phoenix Knight Order, who did not originally belong to him, into his private army through constant fighting, and to prompt Emperor Marius to give him higher authority and freedom on the grounds that the scale of the war around Sava Fortress was expanding.
But Titus does intend to secure more territory for the Bacchus Empire and gain an advantage for the empire in the west - because in his opinion, Li Ang, the lord of the Lion Empire, has captured two border counties in the northeast of the Bacchus Empire. Since the situation on the northeastern border of the empire is worrying, he should create good conditions in the west.
Titus does not intend to treason, he knows Emperor Marius, and he knows that the decisions made by Emperor Marius are always from the perspective of benefiting Bacchus Empire.
He knew that as long as he did not treason and considered the interests of the empire, then Emperor Marius would not care about supporting his own troops and self-respect - just like Kairos. Even though Kairos had always opposed Marius' reforms, because Kairos had always been thinking about the country, he still had the highest status.
Of course, Kairos is now messing around for her son, but Titus doesn't know that.
Bacchus Empire Titus was not in the country during the most chaotic period. He did not know the current situation of the Bacchus Empire. Bacchus Empire's major legions had basically been disabled. He also did not know that Fear Legion's cavalry had actually landed in advance. He thought that the entire Fear Legion had been killed by him at sea.
In the eyes of Titus, Bax is still the extremely powerful empire, and fighting Lionheart Kingdom and Duchy of Dexia at the same time has always been a routine operation for the Bacchus Empire...
At this time, when General Agason came to Fort Lela - Agason was able to reorganize Fort Lela's troops so easily because the soldiers of Fort Lela had heard that Sava Fortress had started a large-scale war again.
Agason, who understands the current actual situation in the empire, is of course very panicked. He knows very well that the current situation Bacchus Empire is definitely not suitable to trigger a war between the three countries.
If the war continues, continues to expand in scale, and becomes a long-term national war between the three countries, then judging from the current state of the Bacchus Empire, it is almost certain to lose.
Although the root cause of all this is indeed Lionheart Kingdom's betrayal of trust and Duchy of Dexia's taking advantage of the situation, but now Bacchus Empire has nothing to do, and Sava Fortress's matter should actually be tolerated.
But now that everything has happened and Sava Fortress has started a war, there is no retreat for Agason - Bacchus Empire must win this battle quickly because it cannot show the fact that Bax is weak domestically to other countries.
Once Lionheart Kingdom and Duchy of Dexia discover that Bacchus Empire is so weak at the moment, it will really be over - if other countries see that Bacchus Empire is internally weak and dare not fight for a long time, they will not even give them a chance to negotiate.
In this case, the only way out is to launch a thunderous strike and end the war in the fastest and most brutal way. It must not be prolonged into a protracted war.
But Agason is really difficult to operate at this time.
Kairos led the main force of the Shadow Legion who followed him to track Snake Worship Cult on the German-Xia border;
Emperor Marius drove those illegal armed forces into Dexia territory, Shadow Wolf Pack was also sent to Dexia to obtain horses, Siyuan City is currently empty, and Immortal Legion cannot move;
Imperial First Legion was crippled by the rebels in Erudition City, and it will take at least several months to rebuild;
In order to quickly roll out the Red Death vaccination, Radiant Cross Knights can't spare any time, and General Clerion's exterminators can't get away either;
On the Imperial Port side, Justus and Imperial Guards are negotiating with the serf general Ivaillo, trying their best to avoid forming a new serf uprising again.
In addition, Imperial Port and Sava Fortress are thousands of miles apart, so even if Justus properly resolves Ivaillo's matter, he will not be able to get over it for a while.
The most powerful legions in the Bacchus Empire are all unable to participate in Sava Fortress's war...
Bacchus Empire can currently only face the armies of two countries with the more than a thousand troops newly reorganized by Agason in Fort Lela, as well as the troops in the hands of General Titus and Phoenix Knight Order...
Moreover, Agason knows that he must quickly reinforce Sava Fortress. If Titus and Phoenix Knight Order do not receive reinforcements for too long, they may think that the empire has given up on them. What if Titus Xinyiheng betrays the empire with Phoenix Knight Order...
Maybe every dazzling hero is a gambler, Emperor Marius is the same, General Agason is the same.
While sending people to report the situation to Emperor Marius, Agason sent out all the troops he had just reorganized. Fort Lela basically left no one behind except a few wounded soldiers who were guarding the gate.
His troops only have a thousand men, and since they are newly reorganized, their cooperation with each other is actually not very good.
But Agason implemented an extremely bold tactic - he personally led his troops, sneaked across the river at night, and attacked Seven Forks Fortress by surprise!
Sir Rayman, the lord of Seven Forks Fortress, was stationed by the bridge of the Sava River. In order to maintain control of the bridge, Ryman very carefully arranged a large number of troops to patrol both ends of the bridge.
But no one expected that Agason's troops would land across the river from the river between Seren Village and Seven Forks Fortress in late winter and early spring, when the river was coldest, and make a large circle in one night, reaching behind Seven Forks Fortress.
You must know that this is not the southern part of the Bacchus Empire, this is the center of the entire continent, and the climate is not that hot. At this time in February and March, the ice upstream of the Sava River has just begun to thaw, and the river water is freezing cold. No one knows how Agason led a group of newly reorganized troops to swim across the river at this time.
The location for crossing the river chosen by Agason is also very good.
Since Calundru Castle was already controlled by Li Ang at this time, Seren Village was sandwiched between Seven Forks Fortress and Calundru Castle, which was originally considered a safe hinterland. Most people were engaged in construction during this time, so the precautions at night were not too rigorous.
At present, Ansen is still organizing border checkpoints on Calundru Castle's side to ensure that Red Death does not spread. In addition, there is Seven Forks Fortress to the west, so patrols The patrol team was not arranged to go to the west side of Seren Village to avoid any conflict between Baxian and Seven Forks Fortress who had just moved into Seren Village.
And Sir Rayman of Seven Forks Fortress probably had the same idea. After knowing that Li Ang had captured Calundru Castle, Ryman did not Send a patrol to the east of Seven Forks Fortress - also to avoid misunderstandings, Ryman doesn't want Li Ang to think that it has any plans for its newly occupied territory...
As a result, Agason passed through the gap between the two places, and then launched a sudden attack from the north gate behind Seven Forks Fortress that no one expected.
Seven Forks Fortress was also controlling Red Death some time ago. They had been transporting and burning corpses outside the north gate. In addition, Ryman brought the large army to the bridge. There were not enough defenders in the fortress. As a result, Agason sneaked in in the name of "reinforcements" and then controlled the entire Seven Forks Fortress from the inside.
This surprise attack shocked the entire continent in a very short period of time - Seven Forks Fortress has never been captured by anyone since it was built!
Even Bax's first emperor, Osa the Conqueror, when he led tens of thousands of troops to rampage Pande Continent, he stopped in front of this fortress for a whole year, and finally withdrew his troops and stopped fighting.
Such a result is naturally more attractive than Bax's fight against Snake Worship Cult. General Agason suddenly became the most dazzling star in the entire continent.
But he is also the famous general in the most dangerous situation...
After occupying Seven Forks Fortress, Agason sent an envoy to Lion City before anyone could react, demanding in tough words that King Ulrich sign an armistice agreement and pay a war indemnity of one million dinars in exchange for his withdrawal from Seven Forks Fortress.
This operation is of course intended to prevent Lionheart Kingdom from seeing the true nature of the Bacchus Empire, and to end the war as soon as possible as a victor, or to attract Lionheart Kingdom's war goal to 'recover Seven Forks Fortress'.
For the Lionheart Kingdom, Seven Forks Fortress is both a symbol of victory in the founding battle and the gateway to the capital. Everyone knows its importance - if Seven Forks Fortress is captured, the capital Lion City will be directly exposed to the enemy.
This will cause all residents in the entire capital economic circle to lose their sense of security, and a large number of nobles and businessmen will flee as a result. If Seven Forks Fortress cannot be recovered in a short time, the indirect losses will be immeasurable.
And everyone in Lion Territory will probably misjudge the strength of Agason's troops because of Agason's tough words - in most people's eyes, those who can capture Seven Forks Fortress must have at least several thousand elite troops, right?
This means that it will probably be difficult to recapture Seven Forks Fortress through fighting for a while. After all, General Osa led an army of tens of thousands and failed to capture the thousands of troops of Grand Duke Alfred who guarded Seven Forks Fortress.
In addition, Lionheart Kingdom's current state is not particularly good. Two powerful dukes have passed away one after another. Lion Knight Order suffered heavy losses a few months ago and has not yet been able to recover. Duke Brennus has just been disabled by Titus and Phoenix Knight Order...
If it were before, Ulrich would probably agree to Agason's conditions, exchange one million dinars for Agason to withdraw from Seven Forks Fortress, admit defeat and declare an armistice.
But Agason probably didn't expect that King Ulrich is very poor now...
The asking price of one million dinars is really not high, Agason is actually asking for the lowest price - Agason is also worried that Ulrich will fight with him...
But if the asking price is any lower, it will be really outrageous. Seven Forks Fortress is not a remote town. This is a large-scale solid fortress that has never been conquered before. The cost of building it back then was more than one million dinars.
To be honest, even King Ulrich himself felt that Agason's asking price was not high, probably just to retaliate against him for tearing up the agreement and attacking Sava Fortress.
But the problem is that although this one million dinars is not much, Ulrich really can't get it now...
It stands to reason that since it is the beginning of the year, the national treasury has just received the taxes and has not yet disbursed them all, so the national treasury should be rich.
But the problem is that King Ulrich owed a lot of loan sharks last year - he spent a lot of money to find a Noldor noble girl, and he spent a lot of money to bribe Bacchus Empire's rebels. All of this money was borrowed from major lords...
Originally, Ulrich had no intention of repaying the money he borrowed, but the domestic situation in the second half of last year was not very good. If he did not repay the money, he would be afraid that the throne would be unstable... So at the beginning of the year, Ulrich misappropriated taxes from the national treasury to repay the money.
At the same time, a large amount of dinars were spent on the reconstruction of Lion Knight Order, which suffered heavy losses - King Ulrich knew very well what this army meant to him. Only after rebuilding Lion Knight Order ten years ago did he truly take control of the entire country. No matter how much money he spent, he had to restore this Royal Knights to its original state.
Royal Knights needs to be decent, and the Minister of Finance did not dare to refuse Lion Knight Order's reconstruction costs. The dinars were spent like water, and part of it was secretly swallowed up by Duke Brennus...
This has been the practice for ten years. Brennus is greedy for money, and Ulrich knows this very well.
But the reason why Brennus is so loyal to the king, and the reason why Ulrich is so relieved about Brennus, is because of this convention...
So King Ulrich is really poor now. He has hundreds of thousands of dinars, but every money has its place. It is really impossible to come up with an extra million dinars.
Ulrich's idea to hit Sava Fortress before was actually to find some supplementary income from the territory of the Bacchus Empire - Brennus scraped the land not just for himself, he wanted to hand over half of the harvest to Ulrich.
He couldn't afford the money, but Seven Forks Fortress had to take it back, otherwise many wealthy households around Lion City would flee and the economic losses would be even greater, so King Ulrich had no choice but to take it back by force.
So the entire Lionheart Kingdom was basically fully mobilized, and King Ulrich issued a king's order, announcing war against the Bacchus Empire again, and summoned all lords to go near Seven Forks Fortress.
At this time, Li Ang welcomed the king's messenger at Long River Town.
"...Count Li Ang worked hard to open up territory for the country and set an example for the lords of the kingdom... Now that the country is in crisis and the enemies are arrogant and domineering, the whole country is looking forward to Count Li Ang's unification. Lead the army to defeat the powerful enemy... According to His Majesty's decree, adhering to the glory of Goddess Eunomia and the will of late king, I appoint Count Li Ang as the marshal of the kingdom..."
After a lengthy conversation, the minister responsible for communicating the king's order handed Li Ang a gorgeous scroll and held out a short-handled scepter made of silver in both hands.
That is the authority of Marshal Lionheart Kingdom.
Ulrich appointed Li Ang as marshal, and the primary combat goal was to recover Seven Forks Fortress.
The lord had just casually mentioned that he would be named a marshal, but he didn't expect that his words would come true. Although it wasn't too unexpected, he really didn't expect that it would happen so quickly.