Chapter 109: Observing the Changes Silently

  Shortly after the Fanude military horn sounded, Liu Yu felt that there was no longer the sound of arrows hitting the iron shield, and after waiting for a moment, the Bimon military officer on the city wall gave the order to disperse.

  "These bastards!" Liu Yu exerted himself to stand up straight, pushing the shield in his hand forward. After a loud "clatter", there were even more arrows on the ground. Looking at the arrows all over the ground, he finally couldn't help but curse.

  At this moment, the ground inside the pass was filled with arrows and stones, especially around Liu Yu's iron shield formation, where the arrows were piled up in a layer.

  "Sweep the battlefield, collect all these arrows, hurry up, hurry up." Without giving Liu Yu and his men time to rest, a school lieutenant quickly gave the order to sweep the battlefield.

  "The Fano Empire is indeed rich to the point of extravagance, wasting iron like this." As he picked up arrows from the ground with Ivan and Diguo, Liu Yu pondered how far apart the Beastman Kingdom and the Fano Empire were in terms of prosperity.

  On the Bei Long continent, various mineral deposits are not readily available everywhere, especially iron ore, which is essential for both life and military purposes, and is considered one of the vital resources of the continent's countries. Liu Yue had followed Wei Lin Shifu when he spoke about the knowledge of iron ore on the continent.

  The nine largest iron mines known on the continent of Balderich have been mined for thousands of years, with the Empire of Vynal holding four of them. The other five are distributed among several other empires on the continent. However, the Beastman Kingdom, which is located in the Cordillera Highlands, does not have any of these famous giant mines within its territory.

  According to Liu Yu, the largest iron mine in the kingdom is currently located near the Fire Fortress, about 100 miles away, which has been mined for nearly a thousand years. In addition to the northern centaur grasslands and the southern wolf tribe territory, there are also seven or eight small iron mines. Currently, the kingdom's iron tools are basically provided by these iron mines.

  But the iron ore produced by all the iron mines of the beast tribe every year is not sufficient, and the forging level of several vassal tribes in charge of forging within the Beastman Kingdom is very mediocre. These factors have severely restricted the use of ironware in the Beastman Kingdom.

  As the top combat force within the kingdom, the iron weapons produced by the kingdom cannot meet their requirements. All Bimon warriors who join the army are issued with long swords and iron helmets that are custom-made from the Dwarf Kingdom.

  As for centaurs and wolf tribes with slightly lower combat effectiveness, they can only use ironware made by several vassal tribes within the kingdom.

  To make up for the lack of ironware, the kingdom would collect and sort out the ironware from the Vanoa Empire on the battlefield, and then send it to several vassal tribes within the kingdom to be re-smelted.

  The reason why they didn't directly stay in the Beast Tribe's army and use them was because the Beast Tribe's army, their physique is generally much taller than the humans on the side of the Fano Empire. This kind of uniform-made standard weapon, when put into the hands of the human army, it fits well, but when put into the hands of the Beast Tribe's army, it becomes too small and can't be used.

  The Fano army's arrows were numerous, but the beastmen warriors were not few either. It was only half an hour after Aisu that the cleanup of the battlefield was completed. At the same time, the mouse people who lived in the westernmost part of the fortress and served as garrison miscellaneous workers had pushed a handcart to Liu Yu's side, taking away all the arrows.

  "This winter we have firewood to burn." Liu Yu suddenly said with a half-joking tone to Ivan beside him, looking at the arrows being taken away by the mouse people.

  The next task for the mouse people was to take down the iron arrowheads, send them back to the interior of the kingdom for re-melting, as for the wooden arrow shafts, they were useless, probably eight out of ten were taken away to be burned as firewood.

  But today's battle for Liu Yu and his fellow warriors under the city wall was really without a bit of the solemn killing feeling that war should have.

  When they cleaned up the arrows and debris, Liu Yu even felt that this was no different from a rain shower. He had only wasted some time and hadn't suffered any harm, just like hiding under an iron shield in the rain. Thinking of this, his heart also felt much more at ease, and he was in the mood to joke with Ivan and the others.

  "Hmm, with so many wooden stakes, it's true that the Mouse People won't be able to chop down much wood." Ivan's normally stern face also revealed a rare hint of relaxation, accompanied by a slight smile as he replied.

  "Haha, I think so too. Those cowards are attacking the city today? This is my first time seeing such an attack, they didn't even touch the city wall and ran away." Nearby, Nari also came over to join in on the excitement, his face full of brown fur shaking with laughter, looking very happy.

  "Smack!" "This was also your first time seeing a siege, don't pretend to be an old hand." Liu Yu couldn't help but slap the back of his head with a loud smack, teaching this arrogant new recruit a lesson as a veteran.

  "You're no different." Nari covered the back of his head, arched his body, shrunk his neck and retorted with a fearful face to Liu Yu's overbearing old soldier.

  "I'll beat you to death, you little brat." As soon as he heard this, Liu Yu was about to use his iron fist to maintain the dignity of the old soldier, but just as his right hand was raised, that little Nari had already run far away.

  "Haha, how old are you guys, still playing this." Ivan stood still on the spot, laughing heartily at these two comrades who were still young at heart.

  "Anyway, forget it, I'll let you off today, but I'll get you another day." Liu Yu, who had just chased out two steps, heard Ivan's words and suddenly felt a little embarrassed.

  He's been a human for over 40 years, and he's still playing this childish game. Thinking about it is also somewhat embarrassing. In the end, I could only say a harsh word to Nari who ran away, as a way to save face.

  "This kid is just as annoying as Fadi." Liu Yu turned around and looked at Ivan, who had a smile on his face, and said casually to cover up his inner embarrassment.

  As soon as he spoke, a sense of regret rose up in his heart. Fadi, Tugela, Geli and the others who had died or been injured were still a painful memory for everyone, and he really shouldn't have mentioned them at this time.

  "Ah, go back and rest for a while, there's still a sentry duty in the afternoon." Liu Yu saw Ivan hear his words, the smile on his face disappeared instantly, and he said somewhat embarrassedly.

  "Wait a minute, Alexander." Liu Yu was just about to turn and leave when Ivan called out to him.

  "Hmm, how..." Liu Yu looked at this old friend with some confusion.

  "Alexander, don't you think that today's Fanord army is a bit strange, or rather, the recent performance of the Fanord army has been quite strange. Think about the Fanord patrol we encountered last time, it was really not worth fighting!"

  Today they came to attack the city with a very large formation, but it ended quickly. We only suffered some arrows and had no other damage, which is not normal." Ivan showed a few points of contemplation, looking at Liu Yu.

  "Hmm..." Liu Yu nodded slightly, indicating Ivan to continue speaking.

  "Let's think back to the time when Fadi and his men died in battle. Although the enemy was several times our number, their strength was still evident. I also heard that during the sneak attack on Sas Province, the main force of the Southern Army led by Daguai and the three direct legions of Fanode suffered significant losses."

  "This shows that Farnese's direct legion is fully capable of fighting in a war, but now this one..."

  "What we're seeing now is just a facade, their commander wants to numb us or they are preparing something that hasn't been completed yet, all the offensives are just for show." Before Ivan could finish speaking, Liu Yu took over, his eyes revealing a rare sharpness.

  The unusual behavior of Foch's troops was intended, on the day when the Second Corps arrived, he guessed that it was to paralyze the defenders of W?vre.

  But today Ivan brought up the sneak attack on Sas Province, and it reminded him again. The Empire of Fano might be preparing something, but it's not done yet, so they need to frequently make these fake attacks to divert the attention of the defenders in the fortress.

  "What shall we do?" Ivan asked with some misgiving.

  "I think that with Commander Douryuu's many years of battle experience, he can't possibly not see through this little trick. By doing this, the Fanoord army is just trying to numb us ordinary soldiers."

  We just don't have many troops here, and the opposing Sas province's Fanuo direct military team is several times ours. Moreover, you've also seen the combat power of the Imperial Guard, those more than 50 guards we encountered that night, the worst were third-class fighters, and there were not a few fourth-class and fifth-class fighters.

  If there are tens of thousands of people in front of such an army, we will be in big trouble. And if the strength of these two armies is added up, the enemy's military strength has already far surpassed us, they can do whatever they want, as long as it's outside this fortress, even General You will be powerless.

  Liu Yu estimated that Kayne was also a famous general of the kingdom, and he thought that Ivan and these newcomers would think so too. He should have been able to think of it as well, but in this situation, Kayne wouldn't have any good solutions either, and could only wait and see what happened.

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