Chapter 473 - 473: Battle of Feiguang City, Revered Envoy
In just one night, most of the border control was lost, and in just over a day, they were pushed back to Feiguang City.
As for the outcome of the decisive battle between the two naval fleets, it was an easy guess. Either the Royal Fleet of the Lienhardt Grand Duchy of Rheinhardt had been defeated or was in a disadvantaged position. The fleet of the Bass Kingdom had already gained control of the sea, allowing them to transport a large number of troops to the coastal hinterland of the Grand Duchy.
Otherwise, why would there be such organized Bass Kingdom troops in this remote military camp far from the border?
However, Ji Chen was somewhat puzzled. Although the military strength of the Lienhardt Grand Duchy was not as great as that of the Bass Kingdom, it should not have deteriorated to such an extent.
There were probably some unusual factors at play here.
“Do these Bass Kingdom troops have anything unusual or suspicious about them?” J
“Anything suspicious…” The officer pondered for a moment. “Well, it seems that their weapon equipment suddenly improved a lot. In the past, our Grand Duchy had much better quality weapon equipment than them, even though our numbers were smaller, we always had an advantage in battle.
But this time, we found that the weapons and equipment of the Bass Kingdom soldiers underwent a significant upgrade, even better than ours. They even have a lot of expensive siege equipment, which has made our situation quite challenging.”
Ji Chen furrowed his brow slightly. Their weapon equipment had improved significantly?
He picked up a Bass Kingdom soldier’s longsword and examined it closely.
Indeed, the quality was quite good, even better than what was produced by the Crown of the Ocean, which had not yet absorbed the Dwarven forging techniques.
Clearly, the Bass Kingdom probably received substantial support in the form of high-quality weapon equipment from somewhere.
In this war, there were not just two sides involved; there was also a third party lurking in the shadows, watching closely.
Suddenly, Ji Chen noticed a hidden mark on the back of the sword’s blade, illuminated by the sunlight.
A pair of narrow, eerie eyes.
He recognized this mark; it belonged to the Deceiver!
Their masks all had such narrow eye marks on their foreheads.
He also remembered Thotmudo mentioning that the Deceiver had likely obtained the Dwarves’ treasure, the Solar Furnace, which gave them the ability to produce a large quantity of high-quality weapon equipment.
It seemed that they were the ones providing these weapons, but he wondered what role they played in the war between the two nations.
Ji Chen didn’t believe that these rats hiding in the sewers were merely providing weapon equipment; there had to be other motives at play.
But now, what needed to be done was to help the Lienhardt Grand Duchy hold off the Bass Kingdom’s advance. Otherwise, if the former was completely defeated, he wouldn’t be able to help them even if he wanted to.
With this thought in mind, Ji Chen asked the officer, “Where exactly is Feiguang City located?”
“It’s on the coast about fifty kilometers west of here. You can see it as long as you spot a towering mountain peak.”
Ji Chen nodded without delay. He waved his hand, and with the army in tow, they returned to the sea, swiftly heading west just as they had come, at an astonishing speed.
The officer and many soldiers from the Lienhardt Grand Duchy stared in amazement as Ji Chen and his troops departed, their eyes wide at the devastation on the ground.
Although they hadn’t completely figured out what was going on, they had a vague premonition that this formidable army that claimed to come from afar might be able to turn the increasingly dire situation around.
Ji Chen and his group quickly returned to the point where they had initially arrived, which happened to be the midpoint between the military camp and Feiguang City. If the Dragon Blood Murlocs who were to explore to the left had ventured a bit farther, they might have already discovered Feiguang City.
Without pausing, the group set off once more, heading towards Feiguang City along the coastline.
Most of the Crown of the Ocean’s troops were sea creatures, which gave them unparalleled mobility in the water. Even the slowest among them, the Water Nymph Archer and the Crab Guardians, had speeds that were beyond human comparison.
Fifty kilometers was no more than half an hour’s time for them.
Ji Chen turned a corner around a cliff, and in the distance, he saw a towering mountain peak and, beneath it, Feiguang City standing on the coast.
The city walls, about fifty meters high and adorned with defensive runes, along with the numerous towering arrow and spell towers that outnumbered the city’s houses, and the tens of thousands of Lienhardt Grand Duchy soldiers stationed inside, made this military stronghold, which had stood here for a century, resemble a hedgehog—ready to pierce any claw that reached out to it.
However, this city, known as the Beacon of the Northern Coast and considered a magnificent city even within the Northern Continent, was now shrouded in smoke and the sounds of battle, as if it were a battlefield.
Two days ago, as the border faced a full-scale crisis and the land forces were advancing swiftly, the Bass Kingdom’s Eighth Fleet seized the opportunity. They surrounded this city, which acted like a crucial barrier on the main advance route, with a substantial force armed with heavy weaponry. This move occurred while the Lienhardt Royal Fleet and the majority of the army were engaged elsewhere.
As long as they could capture it before the Lienhardt Grand Duchy could react, the Bass Kingdom would firmly grasp the initiative in this war. They could either march straight to the capital, Tressburg, or cooperate with the land forces to sweep away any coastal resistance, leaving the Lienhardt Grand Duchy’s naval forces with no place to stand.
Time was of the essence.
Therefore, the supreme commander of this lightning-fast Bass Kingdom offensive, Marshal Russell, demanded that it be captured at all costs within two days, even if it meant turning it into ruins in the end..