I am the son of the traveler

Chapter 168 The Palace Coup
The battle lasted until the evening of the day, and the soldiers in the two armies' battle regiments were exhausted from fighting. The commanders of both sides had no choice but to withdraw their troops and wait for the next day to fight again.

Looking at the corpses all over the place, Antigonus, the Macedonian veteran with only one eye left, felt helpless. His legion had no camp here, so the soldiers could only hastily collect the corpses of the soldiers who died in battle, and then withdraw to a place not far from here. The village of Natan, a former camp far away, was repaired, and the Haruns also had no camp (perhaps they wanted to rely on their numerical superiority to determine the outcome in a single battle), and there was no way for the tired soldiers to cut down trees and set up camp in place. While the Macedonian Legion was slowly withdrawing, it also retreated into the city of Motenki - most of the residential buildings in this city were deserted, and the soldiers of Harlan were able to move in directly and sleep comfortably.

Before dark, the Macedonian soldiers finally returned to their abandoned camp. After rearranging the place, except for the soldiers on patrol, they all went to sleep exhausted after dinner. "One-Eyed" Antigonus and a group of officers couldn't sleep. They lost nearly a thousand soldiers in just one afternoon's battle. Most of the soldiers died fighting the enemy on the frontal battlefield. Some of them were killed in the joint attack of the left wing and the Harlan cavalry and infantry. Although the light infantry defeated the Harlan attack, the price they paid was not small. Too many people bloodied the farmland and never returned. coming.

It is worth mentioning that the casualties of the Haruns far exceeded the casualties of the Macedonian soldiers. According to the statistics of the Macedonians, the Haruns left a total of more than 600 corpses, and there were also an incalculable number of wounded soldiers. According to the statistics of the Harun people every other day, they killed nearly [-] soldiers (many of them were seriously injured due to excessive blood loss, and died after struggling for a night), and hundreds of people were missing.The meaning of missing here has many meanings. It may be that the body was not found, it may be captured, or it may be a deserter.

If it's the first two, it's okay, their family will be exempted from taxes for one year by Harun's fairness and generosity, but if they become deserters, then their family's property will be confiscated and the whole family will be sold as slaves.

Although there were many wounded soldiers in the Macedonian legion, they benefited from the military medical policy implemented by King Philip I in the army, so many soldiers' minor injuries were quickly healed, and the serious ones were treated in time , to avoid further aggravation.It is no exaggeration to say that the medical technology of the Macedonian army is the most advanced in the world.

Cough, far away.

Still in the village headman's house, "One-Eyed" Antigonus and his officers once again gathered at the round table with maps. The aged general had obvious fatigue on his face. Point, opened the mouth.

"The main force of the Harlan people is gathered here. Even if we defeat them in the field, it will be of no use if we fail to take the city in one go. More importantly, this place is not far from the Principality of Harlan, and they can continuously bring Soldiers were sent to the front to fight against us, and we lacked replenishment, and every soldier killed was one less soldier.”

"You mean, we should retreat?" an officer asked tentatively.

"This is a way." Old Antigonus pinched his temples, nodded wearily, and did not deny, "Or, send someone to ask for help from our Mateus allies, for Zeus's sake, I hope they can Make even a little difference.”

What he said was not to belittle the Mateus army, but in fact it was true. Since the Kingdom of Mateus declared war on the Principality of Harun in response to the call, military conflicts between them were few and far between. The only role of the Uz army was to contain the forces of the Harlan people. However, this only function was overturned this morning, and the Mateus army didn't even know whether they were the main force or not.

"As for that group of useless idiots, even if Achilles personally commands them, they can only accept defeat humiliatingly." Aristotle complained angrily.

"I don't think they can play even the slightest role." Old Antigonus' lieutenant Menandros also said, "But I have an idea. Since they can't help us militarily, Then let them provide our army with food, grass and baggage, which will also reduce the logistical pressure on our army."

"Good idea." Old Antigonus nodded, and said in agreement, "Let the Matthaeus provide us with food, grass, and supplies. This is their only use."

When the commander spoke, the others had no opinion, so everyone agreed unanimously.

However, the problem at the beginning was still unresolved. As for whether to continue to fight against the enemy or retreat tomorrow, the officers disagreed and could not give a unified opinion.The officers who advocate continuing to fight are nothing more than seeing the huge gap in the casualty ratio between the two armies, and they are still full of confidence in winning the final victory (in fact, they may not necessarily lose the war), while those who advocate retreat are I don't want any more fearless deaths, because even if they defeat the enemy in the field, the enemy's remnants can retreat to Matianji City, relying on the solid city defenses to wait for domestic reinforcements to arrive.

"One-Eyed" Antigonus is also hovering between the two. Considering the situation on the battlefield, although he has great trust in the combat effectiveness of the infantrymen under his command and is full of confidence in winning, he is not willing to lose too many Macedonian soldiers. , As mentioned above, there are only so few Macedonian citizens in this world, and one death is one less, and the Haruns can continuously send soldiers to the battlefield, and the grinder can grind him to death.

He only thought about it for a few minutes - these few minutes decided the future fate of the entire First Legion soldiers.

"Withdraw our troops, we can't continue spending time here with the Harlan people," he said.

As soon as he finished speaking, the officers who advocated retreat naturally became happy, while the expressions of those who advocated attack darkened. They opened their mouths, but still did not say anything.

"One-Eyed" Antigonus continued: "I will send a messenger back to Pella City to request reinforcements from His Majesty the King. When the reinforcements arrive, it will be time for us to counterattack."

"Before that, we will first withdraw to Fort Lelanven (originally a small fort on the border between the Central Federation and the Western Federation, which became one of the temporary garrisons of the Legion after it was occupied by the Macedonians), the previous decision remains unchanged, Since the Mateus are unable to help us at the military level, they must pay some price in other ways!"

……

Before dawn the next day, the soldiers of the First Legion stationed in Natan Village were awakened one by one at the request of the commander-in-chief, dragging their tired bodies and carrying their personal items on the way back to Fort Lelanwen. Before setting off, old Antigonus did not forget his eldest son who had not been heard from yet, so he sent a messenger to find news about Dmitri and inform them of the retreat of the legion—although old Antigonus did not think that the Macedonian army was retreating. Such heavy news will not spread throughout the entire Matianji area.

The soldiers were called up early in the morning to go on their way before dawn. They complained endlessly while carrying their personal belongings. If it weren't for the old general's high prestige and the influence of the system, these soldiers would definitely have mutinied directly. up.The same example is not without exception. The Macedonian veterans who followed Alexander the Great to conquer the known world of the Greeks are almost famous for their arrogance and rebellion. Before refusing to participate in the battle, he directly left the commander and left the battlefield.

"One-Eyed" Antigonus was also worried about whether this kind of thing would happen, but fortunately the soldiers were extremely loyal. Although they kept complaining, they still walked back to Fort Lelanwen. In order to motivate the soldiers, the old Antigonus behind the fort took some of the spoils he had obtained before and distributed them to the soldiers.

Unbeknownst to the Macedonian Legion that had retreated to Fort Lelanwen, after hearing the news of their retreat, the Haruns in Motenki City collectively fell into carnival. Victory (the enemy's active retreat should also be considered a victory), all the credit was attributed to Prince Dickens, so his reputation reached the peak on the entire front line for a while, and the generals also went to congratulate him , using the most beautiful words in the world to describe his wisdom.Although Prince Dickens is prone to pride and complacency, he is also a relatively rational person, but this reason is quickly overwhelmed by the endless praise.

Dmitri, who was still staying in the Matianki area, was completely dumbfounded when he heard the news. He didn't expect that he was still active behind the enemy lines, and his father didn't even tell him, and led him directly. The legion retreated.In the last battle, he was supposed to lead the cavalry from his headquarters to charge towards Prince Dickens's main formation, but on the way to the battlefield, he encountered a transport team escorting grain and grass. The Macedonian cavalry led by Dmitri immediately charged and wiped out the grain transport team.

After the grain transportation team was annihilated, they spent a long time setting fire to more than a dozen carts of grain and grass. This toss directly missed the battle. When they wanted to go to the battlefield the next day, they found that there were already It became an open space, except for the bloodstains that had not been cleaned up all over the ground, there were not many corpses left.

Then, they went to Natan Village again, wondering if the legion had withdrawn to station there, but when they arrived at Natan Village, they happened to encounter the Harlan army who went there to check. Dmitry estimated the strength gap between the two sides. Very conscientiously, he did not choose to attack, but led his subordinates to evacuate and wandered in the deserted countryside.

It wasn't until a few days later that I learned that the Legion had withdrawn to Fort Leylanwen.

The legions have all withdrawn, and they naturally have no reason to stay here. The cavalry who are short of supplies have suffered a lot from eating horse chews these days, so Dmitri led his men to retreat to Lelanvin. fort.

……

Seven days after the First Legion withdrew into Fort Lelanwen, the envoy sent to the Kingdom of Mateus received a personal reply from the king of the country, Ilitekla. For some reason, the king's attitude was very cold. , The answer he gave was also ambiguous, which made General "One-Eyed" Antigonus suddenly feel an ominous premonition.

Ilitekla is pro-Macedonian, there is no doubt about it, but his attitude has changed suddenly, it is hard not to think about it, General Antigonus wrote a letter to inform the rear and Matthaeus out of prudence. The various cities on the border of the kingdom made the local city defense army composed of Gillis people more vigilant.

Facts have proved that Antigonus' premonition was not unfounded. Half a month later, that is, on October 10 of the same year, a news that shocked the whole country suddenly came from Ditape, the capital of the Kingdom of Mateus. Carat announced that he would pass on the throne to his court prime minister Climans (that is, a close friend who had been with Ilite Carla since his mission), and he would only continue to serve as Pope. At the same time, he also issued relevant decrees. At the beginning, the royal power and the religious power will be separated, and the royal power is above the religious power, and there will no longer be a combination of the royal power and the religious power.

In other words, the status of the king will be higher than that of the pope, and Ilitekla's move can be understood as he will abdicate and stay away from secular affairs.

When the news came back to the city of Pella, the capital of the Kingdom of Macedonia, Antigonus was taken aback. He quickly asked the foreign minister Hieromos to send a note to the city of Ditape to ask the authorities what happened. The battalion of spies also began to move, collecting relevant intelligence.

As more and more information was fed back to Antigonus' desk from the dark thread, the young king's complexion became more and more ugly. This was not a simple political incident. To be precise, it was a despicable and shameful incident. coup.

Relying on the trust of Ilite Kela, the palace minister Climans has always controlled the inside and outside of Ditape's court, almost covering the sky with one hand, and he is ambitious. Voted to the throne, he was the first to follow Ilitekla's cronies, and he also witnessed the whole process of the creation of the so-called Matthaeus, so he naturally sneered at Ilitekala's status as "the guardian of the gods", so he didn't criticize him. The awe of Ilitekra.

Taking advantage of the fact that the kingdom's troops were concentrated on the border and all the forces inside and outside the palace were under his control, Climans finally decided to launch a coup and seize power. He directly put under house arrest Elit who was still exercising with several young and beautiful girls. King Carat forced the other party to pass the throne and promulgate the law under the threat of a shining blade, and then locked him in the great temple that was built not long ago, praying to the gods all day long.

There are naturally people who oppose Climans in such a big city of Ditape, but these few people were quickly cleared away...

(End of this chapter)