"Cough... cough cough...Agason, you are too reckless... if I had not arrived today, if I had not stopped you from continuing the attack, and if we were unwilling to abandon Gladiator Corps, what would have been the consequences? You should not have made such a simple mistake!"
In Bax's camp, Emperor Marius taught his generals a lesson.
"Your Majesty, I just want to use offense instead of defense. Calundru Castle was once occupied by Li Ang. I can't guarantee that he didn't do anything... I'm worried that I won't be able to defend it."
Agason bowed his head and explained honestly.
"No matter what, it's better than fighting in the field...Agason, you always don't want to consider factors other than war. Calundru Castle is Phoenix Knight Order's station. If Li Ang attacks Calundru Castle, Phoenix Knight Order will help us..."
Emperor Marius said with a bit of hatred for iron.
"I know that the field battle is not good for us... but I hid all the Iron Ring Centurion, and I was originally planning to bypass the battlefield and attack his Chinese King's Banner..."
Agason lowered his head and said softly.
"You still don't understand Li Ang...Agason, I can guarantee that Li Ang is not in his Chinese army camp at all! You are too adventurous, Agason... cough cough cough... cough! cough!!..."
Emperor Marius started coughing violently as he spoke.
"Your Majesty, please lie down and rest quickly and stop talking..."
Agason was a little flustered. He knew about Marius' condition, but at this time, His Majesty still led his troops and galloped away...
"Huh... huh... I'm fine... it's fine..."
Marius pushed aside the hand that Agason was trying to support, took out a small piece of black stuff from his arms, broke off a small piece and threw it into the wine glass on the table, and then drank the wine in the glass in one gulp.
As usual, Marius was still heating the wine on a small stove, but now he no longer used lead vessels.
"Your Majesty! This is..."
Agason's eyes widened and he lowered his voice in panic. "Is this opium?!"
"... This is indeed opium."
After drinking the glass of wine with opium paste, Emperor Marius no longer coughed, and his face looked much rosier.
"You..."
Agason didn't know what to say. His hands were trembling, and he finally covered his face and slowly sat on the chair.
He realized that Emperor Marius's body might not be able to support it for much longer, and the way his face was flushing now seemed like he was having a flashback.
"These opium are medicines prescribed by doctors. I can only rely on this... my disease can no longer be cured."
Marius looked at Agason calmly. "You are now the marshal of the empire... You can no longer regard yourself as a general charging into battle, Agason."
"Your Majesty, I... our enemy is Li Ang... I have no confidence in defeating him in terms of strategy. If I keep guarding Calundru Castle, I will probably be trapped... just like I did when I was at Seven Forks Fortress..."
Agason looked at Marius at a loss and explained his inner demons in a low voice.
"In this case, let's fight him quickly. After all, we have already attacked here... If you are not confident in the strategy, then advance in an upright formation!"
Emperor Marius patted Agason on the shoulder. "I remember that Agason always believed that he could defeat any strong enemy."
"If your body is still healthy, then I still firmly believe that you can defeat any strong enemy..."
Agason lowered his head and knelt down in front of Emperor Marius, tears gradually filling his eyes. "But now... Your Majesty..."
"You're crying! I'm not dead yet!"
Marius punched Agason on the shoulder.
The punch was powerless, but Marius himself staggered.
Agason quickly supported Emperor Marius, tears falling from his eyes.
"Listen to me... I have brought three thousand cavalry. They are all military police and mounted police summoned urgently to maintain public security. Their combat effectiveness is uneven. They can only be used for harassment and are not suitable for frontal combat... But this will definitely disrupt Li Ang's deployment. We must seize this opportunity. Tomorrow, you will lead the cavalry, and I will command the Chinese army..."
Marius waved his hand and quickly made arrangements without letting Agason help him.
"Your Majesty, do you want to personally command the battle? Your body..."
Agason cried and cried.
"I don't want to die on my bed!"
Marius smiled, his eyes still shining. "Listen, Agason... If Li Ang charges at me tomorrow, you can't control me... No rescue, no chaos. You have to take all the cavalry and do what you are good at..."
At this time, a military affairs meeting was being held in the military camp of Li Ang.
Everyone was discussing the next battle.
"When did Bax have so many cavalry?"
Leofric was a little anxious and paced back and forth in the military tent.
"They got a lot of horses from Dexia, and it is appropriate to form a few new cavalry units... But the decision to abandon Gladiator Corps can only be made by Emperor Marius himself. In other words, Emperor Marius himself is on the opposite side."
Li Ang sat on the table very ungracefully, tapping the scabbard with his fingers.
"Isn't Emperor Marius seriously ill? Can he still lead the cavalry into battle?"
Kloze asked in confusion.
"Maybe Radiant Cross Knights's superb medical skills can cure his illness... Let's think about how to deal with it tomorrow. The enemy's cavalry is no less than ours. Fortunately, we retreated in time today and were not bypassed by those cavalry..."
Leofric paused, turned around, and started pacing again.
"But it may be too late to rearrange our tactics now... Moreover, the area where we are stationed is almost entirely an unprotected plain. My people are not good at fighting large-scale cavalry in the plains..."
Isildur shook his head and sighed.
This is the problem caused by retreating twenty miles - where we are currently camping, there are neither forests nor hills nearby. This is not the battlefield Li Ang originally envisioned.
However, in large-scale battles, it is best for the side that retreats first to retreat to an unobstructed plain environment to camp.
This is for safety and to avoid unpredictable accidents. When the troops withdraw, it will be difficult to support each other. The plain environment with an unobstructed view will at least prevent them from being ambushed by the enemy.
"This area is very suitable for us to carry out cavalry assault and mounted shooting. As long as the Chinese army can withstand the enemy's large forces, we can overwhelm their array."
Ralph looked at Leofric, then at Isildur, and put forward his own opinion.
"If the Chinese army can withstand it, I won't find it troublesome..."
Leofric sighed, "It's not that I'm not confident. If it's a hundred people versus a hundred people, our soldiers can beat Baxian to tears. But if it's a few thousand people versus a few thousand people, the result will be the opposite... Our troops are assembled by various lords and have not undergone unified large-scale collaborative training. But Bax's side are all uniformly trained legions. The larger the scale of the battle, the stronger they are."
Indeed, this is why Bacchus Empire's positional warfare has always been stronger than that of other countries, and why Baxian has always been able to use infantry against the Lionheart Kingdom's heavy cavalry.
Especially after Marius Reform, Bax all legions are unified professional soldiers and receive unified training. Even members of different legions can cooperate closely with each other. This is something that the armies of other countries cannot do - the armies of other countries are made up of various lords.
In terms of individual soldier ability, any member of Li Ang's unit is top-notch. It can be said that they are all elite troops.
But the problem is that each army only has a few hundred people, and their tactics, equipment, and combat ideas are all inconsistent. I'm afraid they really can't withstand the advancement of Baxian's battle formation.
"We have to find a way to fight a melee, just like when Three Prophets dealt with us... but we must first disrupt Baxian's array."
Li Ang nodded towards Leofric.
It is true that you cannot fight the enemy in the way that the enemy is good at. If you can break into Baxian's formation and force them to disperse and engage in a melee, your side will be able to achieve a great victory with stronger individual combat capabilities.
"But how to break up Baxian's military formation?"
Isildur asked.
Everyone fell into deep thought.
At this time, a knight came in and reported, "Report! Your Majesty, Bax has sent an envoy to visit... General Sura wants to see you."
"It seems that the leader of the army on the opposite side is indeed Emperor Marius himself. General Sura, please come in..."
Li Ang waved his hand, then got down from the desk and sat on the main chair.
Not long after, General Sura was taken into the military tent.
Sura still came alone, and he was carrying another box in his hand.
"General Sura, you won't come to do business with me again, will you? Is it possible that Emperor Marius is planning to surrender to me this time?"
Li Ang looked at Sura in surprise and asked with a teasing tone.
"...Li Ang, Your Majesty, I was entrusted by His Majesty Marus to bring you a gift - this is a wedding gift for you. His Majesty Marus asked me to apologize to you. When he learned about your wedding, he sent someone to Siyuan City to pick up this gift, but it was a long way, so this gift arrived a few days late. I hope you don't mind."
Sura shook his head expressionlessly and handed over the box in his hand.
Risadiran reached out to take it and asked Li Ang with his eyes.
Li Ang nodded. "Open it and take a look."
There are a lot of things in the box.
There was a clay wine jug and a lot of fruits placed in a wooden box filled with ice cubes.
Orange, lemon, pomegranate, coconut...
Many of these fruits are not in season, and most of them are melted together with ice cubes. They are obviously taken out of the ice cellar, and there is only one of each kind of fruit.
Most of the fruits are specialties from the West Coast, the same things Li Ang once asked Emperor Marius to buy for zero dollars - these fruits can alleviate the symptoms of lead poisoning.
Of course, Li Ang mainly wanted Bacchus Empire to stab Fieltzwe, because at that time Amy had just become Queen of the Lionheart Kingdom.
--These fruits represent the friendship between Marius and Li Ang.
Even if the two sides are currently in hostile camps, personal friendship can still exist.
At the same time, these fruits are also pure blessings-this is to wish Li Ang to have his own fruits as soon as possible...
"Please thank His Majesty Marus on my behalf... I have received his thoughts."
Li Ang expressed his sincere gratitude.
But then he realized that Emperor Marius might not last long - Marius himself came here, but he asked people to get these fruits from Siyuan City. In other words, he did not bring these things with him...
This means that he is extremely ill and no longer needs these fruits!
"I will... Your Majesty Li Ang, in addition to bringing gifts, His Majesty Marus also asked me to invite you to a battle - tomorrow morning, he hopes that you will have a decisive battle with him."
Sura nodded and continued.
Before he finished speaking, there was a loud discussion in the military tent.
"Inviting to fight? Is this still a thing these days?"
Leofric's face was full of disbelief.
Indeed, this practice of two armies confronting each other, openly inviting battle, and then hedging fairly has disappeared hundreds of years ago...
"Okay, please tell His Majesty Marus that I will be waiting for him here tomorrow morning."
Li Ang waved his hand to stop Leofric, and agreed seriously, "Risadiran, send General Sura for me."
"Your Majesty! This is no joke..."
As soon as Sura walked out of the military tent, Leofric asked anxiously, "Are you really planning to have a decisive battle like this? We haven't made any arrangements yet!"
"I must agree... This is a challenge from Emperor Bax to the new King of Pendor. How can I refuse?"
Li Ang smiled, "A big battle should be handled with dignity."
"But we are at a disadvantage in frontal combat. Moreover, they have many people now and Emperor Marius supervises the formation. Their morale must be high... and we don't have time to deploy too many tactics now."
Isildur also feels that Li Ang seems a bit sloppy.
"It's because of the Marius Governor's formation... If Emperor Marius hadn't come, I definitely wouldn't have lined up to fight with Baxian... But precisely because their current coach is Emperor Marius, I'm willing to fight them head-on... Sometimes having more people is not necessarily a good thing, and the emperor's personal expedition is not necessarily a good thing either."
Li Ang shook his head. "The strongest link is often the weakest place... So, tomorrow we only have a simple tactic - everyone follows me and charges towards Emperor Marius's location!"
"But how do we know where Emperor Marius is?"
Kloze asked.
"Marius's body is already very weak... He cannot lead the cavalry. And since he has openly invited me to fight, he will not hide in the dark. With his character, he will definitely stand in front of Baxian's Chinese army..."
Li Ang spread his hands. "Of course, everyone, this is just my judgment, probably plus a little feeling... But I am sure that my feeling is correct!"
"A weak patient is standing at the front of the array... I think he may also deliberately attract me to rush to his position - if nothing else, this is Emperor Marius's intention to invite me to fight. He wants to use himself as bait..."
"But it also happens to be our opportunity..."
"Emperor Marius himself is a hero who is determined and stable in times of trouble. He will definitely make some targeted arrangements, but other Baxian may not have as stable a mentality as him..."
"As long as they think Emperor Marius is in danger, they will definitely try to rescue them, and then the lineup of other Bax troops will probably be in chaos!"
"As long as their military formation is a little more chaotic, we can break in!"
"Of course, this is a gamble. If Bax is in chaos, we can win a big victory. But if we don't have the determination to break through everything, or if all Baxian don't care about Marius' life or death, then we will face a defeat... Everyone, do you want to bet?"
After Li Ang finished speaking, he looked around at everyone present.
"Bet!"
No one present was a coward, and there was no need to explain such a simple and easy-to-understand tactic. They still believed in Li Ang's judgment.
"Okay... then it's decided. But there is one thing you must remember - even if I am in danger, you don't care about me! Remember! Only charge towards Emperor Marius!!"