May 31st, there is one day left before the development order.
It can be seen that the entire Solo City is completely alive, with countless soldiers carrying food, arrows, various weapons, etc. onto carriages.
As for the assassination last night, the second prince acted as if it had never happened and everything was as usual.
Chris and Manda were walking on the streets of the city, looking at the busy soldiers, and asked: "What does the pioneering order do specifically?"
Manda replied: "Conquer cities, knock down cities one after another, annex the nearby land and population, and turn them into part of our country."
"So how many cities did you attack last year?"
"Two." Manda held out two fingers, "Half a month to attack, the other half to gather the land and recruit local nobles and knights, one per month on average."
In the magical continent, it often takes tens of thousands of people and decades to build a city.
Therefore, occupying a city is almost equivalent to taking the nearby land into your pocket, which can expand the country's territory.
If other kingdoms maintain the same efficiency, the conquered country will be completely annexed within ten years.
After that, there will be a competition of comprehensive national strength, and the weakest country will be selected as the target of the expansion order.
Of course, a powerful country will not develop without limit. It is guaranteed that two princes will have conflicts and split into two countries.
In short, there are constant battles on the mainland all year round, because only in this way can ordinary knights be given the opportunity to gain military exploits and be promoted to nobles.
This is also the default rule for everyone.
Ordinary people have no sense of belonging to the kingdom, and they just change the royal flag from the top of the city.
A person grew up in country A when he was a child. When he became an adult, country A was destroyed and he became a person of country B. When he grew old, he became a person of country C because of the split of country B.
These are trivia in Chris' mind, because his grandfather was in this situation.
"By the way, I heard that the second prince was assassinated last night. What was the specific situation?" Manda asked with bright big eyes.
Chris said: "A fourth-level peak knight, wearing a mask and pretending to be the lead dancer, approached the second prince and took the opportunity to take out a dagger and assassinate him."
"Are there such powerful disguise masks in this world?"
Chris thought for a while and said: "I don't know. Anyway, when I saw it, it was just a thin piece of skin, a bit like a human face."
"Is there a possibility that he cut off the face of the original dancer and put it on his own face?" Manda asked.
Chris stopped where he was. Even if the assassin had cut off the dancer's face, it would still be impossible for him to stick to her so closely.
unless···
"Splicing magic?"
The two looked at each other and said in unison.
"It seems that this matter is much more complicated than it appears." Chris said with a solemn expression.
If the guess is correct, then there must be a black magician involved behind this assassination.
Manda asked: "Why are they assassinating the second prince at this juncture? Is it to stop the development order?"
"It's unlikely." Chris shook his head and said, "We are not the only ones participating in the pioneering order. The Iron Rhinoceros Kingdom can't assassinate the princes of all countries, right? That would be too difficult."
"Then I really can't understand." Manda shook her head.
"If you don't understand, don't think about it." Chris reached out to touch her head, but was slapped away by the latter.
"Let's go and have a good time, otherwise we won't have this opportunity in the future."
······
June 1st, dawn.
As soon as the sun showed its rays of light from the east, 20,000 people had already gathered in front of the city gate of Solo City.
Among them, there are only about 8,000 nobles, and the rest are knights who want to earn knighthoods for their military exploits.
Chris stood in the crowd while riding a horse. From his angle, he could only see a mass of black heads.
The second prince was at the front of the crowd. He was wearing bright golden armor and a red cloak. The mount under his crotch was a tall war horse with dark blue electric light shining on it.
The second prince drew his sword and pointed forward, shouting: "Let's go!"
Twenty thousand nobles and knights set out at the same time, with an astonishing momentum.
The ground beneath my feet trembled slightly, and dust flew behind me.
After them, carriages carrying food, tents, and spare weapons walked out of the city gate, and there were more than 50,000 soldiers responsible for the transportation.
About two hours later, they arrived in front of a city.
It was a small city on the border of the Iron Rhinoceros Kingdom, called Hearthstone City.
At this moment, the city gate is closed, and there are rows of soldiers standing on the city wall, as well as hundreds of large catapults.
After the follow-up troops arrived, the second prince ordered people to set up countless tents five kilometers outside the city.
Siege is a protracted battle and does not happen overnight.
Based on previous years' experience, it would take at least fifteen days to capture this city.
After noon, the second prince led the noble knights to launch the first wave of siege.
They brought ladders and battering rams to attack the city wall.
The battering ram is a giant tree that is as thick as a man's waist and 20 meters long, and is carried by knights who are more than ten meters tall on foot.
Huge boulders with a diameter of more than half a meter were dropped from the city wall, aiming at the battering rams.
Many knights jumped up and cut the boulder in half.
"Swish, swish, swish." Immediately afterwards, countless arrows were shot from the city wall, densely packed, like rain.
For knights with fighting spirit protection, those arrows are not fatal, but they will interfere with their actions.
As a result, no one stopped those huge rocks, and all the battering rams were smashed into splinters on the ground.
There was a cheer from the city wall: "Great!"
"Well done!"
The Mote City side was blocked at every turn. Even the ladders had many parts broken, making it impossible to get close to the city wall. Many knights were knocked unconscious.
Although there were not many casualties, the first siege could almost be said to have ended in failure.
The second prince was at the back without any change in his expression. This was completely expected.
In previous years, they would have to wait until the defenders had finished projecting the stones in their reserve before they had a chance to invade the city.
Therefore, the second prince was not in a hurry and was about to let his men blow the retreat horn.
At the same time, Chris had already approached a few hundred meters away from the city gate. He took out the Qiongtian Explosive Flame Bow from the space ring, stretched it into a full moon, injected all the fighting spirit and magic power, and prepared the explosive arrow.
"Whoosh!" A red-gold arrow flew towards the city gate.
On the battlefield, such an arrow is inconspicuous.
But this arrow can change the battlefield.
Accompanied by a violent explosion, the city gate made of huge rocks suddenly fell into pieces.
Tens of thousands of pairs of eyes cast their gaze over, and they were all stunned.