16. The Destruction of Luskan (Part 1)
Of course, these wrecks that capsized the entry and exit channels of Luskan Port also blocked the landing route of the attacking party at sea, but the crusade army did not seem to have thought from the beginning that they would launch an attack on Luskan City from sea and four fleets deployed by the Nessèrel Empire on the offshore are still stranded in various ports in the south. Due to the monsoon relationship and the sailors' strike, they did not have time to arrive at the battlefield.
The three floating battleships that have arrived on the battlefield are obviously safer to deploy them in the air for long-range artillery shelling than landing on the sea surface. In this case, the only few coastal defense fortress guns in Luscan City will be unable to fight back against enemy ships hanging high in the air due to the insufficient elevation angle of the muzzle when designed, but can only fall to the ground and let passively be beaten.
As for air combat, there is no need to consider the poor Luscan City. It cannot afford to feed a large amount of meat every day. There is not enough gold and silver treasures to satisfy the dragon's greedy appetite. There is no aircraft suitable for driving in the strong winds of the earth. Even the number of combat mages is very limited. Although the leader of the rebels is a group of mages, the poor Luscan City has no financial resources to popularize arcane education and increase the number of arcane users. Therefore, the actual number of mages in this city ruled by the mage is the rarest in the north.
On the land outside the city, the 70,000 troops of the Giant Bear Legion, the Phantom Legion and the Glorious Legion were lined up, firmly guarding the rebels' breakthrough. In addition, there were a large number of leaders who turned against each other and helped them to block every path so that they could not airtightly.
Therefore, the outcome of this battle was no suspense from the beginning, at most it was the length of the duration and the amount of sacrifices.
In fact, compared to the unsurprising battle situation, Feili, who came here for the first time, was more concerned and surprised by the outrageous depression, dilapidation and backwardness of this Luscan city.
"...Isn't Luskan known as the City of Thousand Sails? Why is it only of this size? It looks like a population of 20,000 to 30,000 people at most! And the houses and streets are also dilapidated and messy, like a big garbage dump, and it seems that they are not much better than the Ice Wind Valley in the Arctic Circle!"
"...No one can say that this place is both conservative and xenophobic, and hostile to foreigners. But under the suppression of the empire, it cannot run to other cities to rob houses like in the past. Even if there are ports with excellent hydrological conditions, how can it develop?"
Ms. Elaszhuo shrugged and replied, because her "Silver Hunter" had not been completed and the cabin had not been renovated, and she lived in a very cold way, so she moved her home to Feili's Xiangrui, which was considered to have established a joint command. At this time, she just answered questions and answered Feili, "...,
Centuries ago, Luskan was recognized as the poorest, most broken and dirty port city in the Northland…”
Luokan is located on the northern coast of the Blade Bay, facing the Ice Wind Valley in the north and in the south without the Winter City. The city spans the estuary of the Miral River, making it a major mineral trafficking route in the upstream mining center Milabar City. It is also the only commodity exchange center between the barren tundra of the Arctic and the southern civilized world, and it is also the northernmost port city of the Feren continent. Since its founding, it has enjoyed the reputation of a city of thousands of sails.
At first glance, with the help of its unique geographical location, it should become a very prosperous commercial and trade port. But in fact, Luskan is an extremely dangerous place, a thief nest full of pirates and bloodthirsty bandits, and a chaotic city of famous brothers.
The original founder of the city was a group of ruthless pirates from the common hometown of Ruathym, the Northland residents, and exiled prisoners from several civilized countries in the south who had been forced to wander here in their early years and settled down. Afterwards, some cultists and drug dealers came. Finally, a very strange dual leadership team was formed. On the surface, the city was ruled by a council of five highcatainos, who were basically former pirate leaders, but the real power was in the hands of an evil mage club called the "Brother of Arcane". The members were almost entirely magicians and only a small number of employed servitudes and bodyguards served this ambitious organization, working on tasks that magicians could not or did not want to do in person.
Judging from the original original conditions, the development potential of the Arcane Brotherhood or Luskan city-state is still very good: First of all, Luskan is located in the remote northwest border and is not easily attacked by strong enemies: secondly, there are smooth sea routes for transportation and expedition, and at least there is a way to go out to rob, rather than being blocked in the mountains: thirdly, in the end, Luskan's northern pirates have always been fierce and good at fighting, and their terrifying reputation spread throughout the Sword Bay and the Frost Giants in the Ice Wind Valley can be recruited as cannon fodder, so the military strength of this city-state can be said to be quite powerful.
But the problem is that from the beginning of its establishment, this evil city has had an embarrassing situation where ideals and reality are seriously disconnected. There has never been a relatively rational expansion strategy. Shortly after its establishment, the Arcane Brotherhood was completely burned by its ambition. It completely ignored its thin foundation of only more than 100 members and Luskan's city with only more than 10,000 people. It actually dreamed of ruling the entire Northland, and foolishly declared war on the entire Northland, launching an attack on almost all countries and forces in the northland at the same time...
Obviously, no matter how strong the military strength of Luskan is, it is impossible to be enemies with all the countries and forces in the North at the same time.
dr1361, the Luskans once conquered the old land of Rosem Island, but then under the intervention of the Northland coalition led by Deepwater City, he was forced to retreat. Then civil strife broke out, and the entire city almost collapsed. "After suffering the above series of painful failures, the Arcane Brotherhood finally woke up a little, understood that it was not the protagonist template, and could lead a small group of people to be invincible and defeat, and began to try to avoid conflicts with major forces like Deepwater City, Silver Moon City, and Am.
However, they still actively invade small villages and towns that lack self-defense power, or long-distance caravans with insufficient armed escorts, and actively cover pirates to plunder the merchant ships in the deep water city, and never let go of their butcher's knife to truce.
In addition to bloody looting and legal trade, the Arcane Brotherhood mages also had their hands on almost any other evil acts, including pirates, slave trades, drug dealings and si. The reason they conducted these dirty trades was not just for a considerable income, but also regarded them as a means to realize their political ideals: to establish a powerful empire in the North that combines trade and politics.
Since the first president of the Arcane Brotherhood, they have begun to call themselves the King of the North with a boastful voice, but in fact they have become the public enemy of the North and have never expanded their territory to anywhere outside Luskan. What's more, they have a bad relationship with almost all their neighbors!
When the Naserel Empire was established, Luskan was tortured by a great plague. The streets were full of rotten corpses, the population decreased by more than three-quarters, and there was no power to stop the empire's annexation. The Arcane Brotherhood, which had few people left, had no choice but to surrender in exchange for the preferential treatment of making the city a dominant of the empire and maintaining a high degree of autonomy.
But during the reign of the empire, the city was still a headache-inducing thorn. There was basically no rationality at all. Travelers who came to Lusk would find themselves very unpopular. Most local taverns and hotels were not available. The professional spirit of "customers are God" does not accept travelers from other places at all, but only provides food and accommodation to local residents, especially sailors and pirates. Even if they lose money, they will be willing to go bankrupt.
The Arcane Brotherhood also publicly encourages this unfriendly attitude towards outsiders, because its leaders suspect that anyone entering Luskan is not actually coming to trade, but rather spies or enemies who are seeking news. The fraternity agents often secretly follow any travelers coming to Luskan and report their whereabouts to the hottowen (Great Ofata, Arcane Brotherhood Headquarters).
Obviously, in such a crazy, neurotic and unreasonable weird place, there is no way to travel and do business normally.
With the anger and curse of foreign merchants, Luskan gradually became a bad place that everyone disliked. Except for the Milabar City and Ice Wind Valley where the port really could not avoid, no one else was willing to come here to do business, which made Luskan increasingly depressed and poor. However, the arrogant Luskan people had no intention of remorse, but they complained about the world and cursed the government all day long. They also made many brainless actions that lack rationality, such as in the "Public" center of Luskan.
A large bronze statue of a single size was erected. The content was that the then-reigning CEO Alaszhuo took off his skirt and raised his butt with his butt on his face. He was tinged from behind by an ugly frost giant in a dog-like manner. It was obvious that no matter how bold and unrestrained the foolish girl was, she would not be happy with this promotional method. What's more, Ms. Alaszhuo is not a fool at all. "It's just that the head and the male pet on the opposite side were a little bit bored with the new, and it's both men and women...
As a result, the relevant authorities became increasingly disliked by this hateful city, and the lives of the residents of Luskan were even worse than that of the Imperial Government and the Northern authorities. "Every time they had to pay for the fees and collect materials, they would never be missing, and they would also have a heavy free labor. However, if there were any industrial transportation investment projects or agricultural development plans, they would never consider any support for the poor and backward Luskan...
Hundreds of years have passed, and the once desolate and barbaric vast northern land has been covered with sky and earth. Countless factories, mines, markets, roads and bustling cities have been set up, becoming a world-famous industrial base. Only this Luscan city seems to remain in the dark medieval era, with nothing but old and dilapidated wooden houses, poor and unemployed vagrants, and dirty muddy streets.
In this way, these arrogant, conservative, ignorant and shameless Luskan people "brutally oppressed" their imperial government, especially the "big enemy" Ms. Elaszhuo, naturally became increasingly resentful, and never thought that she was offending others in front... There was no way." The ideas of these guys were speechless,
If you are unlucky, you blame the world and the government, and you take it for granted. The real double standard is just that you are too weak and you have learned too many lessons from being beaten in the past. The Arcane Brothers dare not easily raise the flag to rebel.
Finally, a few months ago, due to the generous support and instigation of certain mysterious forces, Ms. Elaszhuo was seen in the favorable situation of the emptiness of the base camp of Silver Moon City. Luskan's Arcane Brotherhood finally made up his mind and forced a group of mercenaries to raise the rebellion flag with great momentum, and then raised the rebellion flag in a fierce manner, stormed the revenge and killed the Silver Moon City, "revenge"
Go.
However, the gang of Arcane Brotherhood failed to break into Silver Moon City in the end, but was quickly forced to retreat step by step. Even if there were occasional small victories, it would be useless for the overall situation. In the end, less than two months after they raised the flag to rebel, the moment of destruction was about to come.
Luscan City Central, Sandbank Island at the mouth of the Miral River, headquarters of the Arcane Brotherhood, the HPPttowen
No one could ever say exactly when the Great Orfata was built on an island near the mouth of the Miral River, or who built it, or when the Arcane Brotherhood began to settle in it, and extended its black hand to Luskan.
Even the bravest people would probably feel uncomfortable to see the Great Ofata in the center of the Miral River. This tower stands like a dead tree on the dark water of the Luskan Port District, and the red branches pierce into the dark sky, like the dry fingers of an old woman drowned.
The entire building of the Great Orfa Tower consists of a central main tower and four taller and thinner towers of the same height. It looks like a compass. The most magnificent spire main tower is located at the base of the compass. The other four towers extending like a pointer have smaller spires, wide balcony and podiums for expanding the use area. They are lived and worked by a president and four presidents.
In the north, under the lush sky, the Arcane Brotherhood's Great Orfa Tower stands in the center of the estuary that divides the city into two halves. It overlooks the crowded streets of Luskan and the coastline full of reefs. Its weird shadows project on the city. Its pedestrians on the street always glance at the strange stone tower from time to time, as if they were afraid that something terrible would appear from it at some time since the Arcane Brotherhood moved into this tower, and there were often some strange and terrifying creatures around the Great Orfa Tower.
At this moment, in a dark stone room on the bottom of the Great Aufa Tower, a pale black-robed undead mage was sitting at the table. With the help of the dim light of the candle, he clicked the quill on the paper blankly, while sorting out the thoughts in his mind.
The embroidered seal pattern in front of his black robe: a flame burning on the dragon's claws with eyes, showing that the necromancer is a member of the Dragon Witch Sect, a super old evil organization in the Feren Continent.
Through the small window of the stone chamber, you can see that the city outside the tower has been shrouded in a choking smoke.
After a little while, the undead mage of the Dragon Witch Sect began to continue writing in the booklet, recording all the battlefield experiences he had witnessed.
"...Dear Master Samust, His Excellency, personally announced: This time, I rushed to the important town of Luskan Port in the northern part of Luskan." After some trading, bribery, debate and persuasion, I finally successfully convinced the Arcane Brothers to rebel, and once killed the outskirts of Yinyue City, the enemy's base camp.
However, the Luskan militia had not been trained for many years and were really unable to fight, and the mercenaries were only greedy for high salaries and had no loyalty. Once Elaszhuo led his army back, the mobs of these people were simply unable to withstand a powerful enemy's attack and had to retreat step by step. Although they once won a great victory in the Battle of the Miral River and were lucky enough to annihilate the "lightning" of the enemy's 11th Legion, the enemy immediately gathered four legions of 100,000 people to advance again. There were also giant iron armored ships scattered in the sky, and the defenders of the whole city were all shattered, and the mercenaries from the suburbs even surrendered. At this point, even if the Arcane Brothers decided to fight to the death, it would only last for a few days.
As Bei Zhi saw with his own eyes, Luscan City was about to be lost, and it was no longer necessary to instigate chaos in the north. However, the port was destroyed by artillery bombardment, and there were enemy troops on the road to investigate the land. I felt that it was difficult to escape safely, so I had to prepare to burn the secret documents and try to lurk on the spot..."
Chapter completed!