As soon as the start of the new year began, Arad made a move that shocked the world - to become emperor!

The main reasons for Arad to set up the throne are: first, adhering to the will of heaven, of course, it describes many revelations from heaven, the most important thing is that the emperor star appeared, the government and the opposition were shaken, and it was necessary to set up a noble emperor, and the leader would uphold and convey the will of God; Second, it is consistent with the identity of the empire, since Alasia is an empire, the supreme ruler should be the emperor rather than the prince; The third is that the situation in Alasia is turbulent, and the people of the whole country are about to call out for the emperor, in order to conform to the will of the people, appease the people, and deter the current situation, they should immediately choose the virtuous person to occupy the throne.

Of course, Arad did not claim the title of emperor so directly, but called on the whole country to find virtuous sages to take responsibility. However, the ministers of the government and the opposition, the marshals and generals jointly wrote a letter asking the highly respected Arad to ascend the throne, but Arad repeatedly pushed back, believing that his virtue was not enough to convince the public, so he asked the government and the opposition to consider it again and choose another virtuous person to take the position. This was repeated three times, and the courtiers threatened to strike the army and the marshals and generals of all walks of life to resign en masse, and asked the new monarch to ascend the throne.

As soon as Arad ascended the throne, he immediately issued an edict with the following main contents: first, to crown the ministers, and all the ministers, marshals and generals of the government and the opposition were promoted to a knighthood at the same time; the second is to grant amnesty to the world and reduce taxes; The third is the reorganization of the Royal Paladin.

The Paladin Legion is the strongest fighting class in the Alasia army sequence, but due to the requirements for the quality of cavalry, the selection of war horses, and the equipment are all one in a thousand, the selected cavalry must go through several years of study and training in the Paladin Academy, and then eliminate most of the people, and the remaining knights can be called real paladins. Although the paladin has super combat effectiveness, the conditions for forming an army are harsh, and the cost is expensive, the cost of training each paladin, the cost of war horse equipment is more than 100,000 gold coins, as well as the cost of raising the army, and at the same time, the paladin legion must be equipped with the corresponding escort army, logistics supply brigade and so on. Therefore, even though the paladins are extremely powerful in Alasia, the rulers of Alasia have to consider the issue of cost performance. Now that Arad has ascended the throne, he has immediately injected this booster into the army, and the whole army is jubilant. In fact, in the early years, Arad was already secretly forming this army, but due to limited conditions, the scale of the army was not large, after several years of secret operation, he already had more than 400 paladins under his command, all of them were one hundred, so he took advantage of the opportunity to ascend the throne and announced the rebuilding of this army, in order to encourage the whole army, in order to win more support for himself.

The number of the Fourth Legion was revoked and renamed the Seventh Theater of Arathia, and the commander of the Legion, Marshal Samara, was made a count, with the same title as the marshal of the theater of his descendants.

Most surprisingly, Arad announced that it recognized the neutral status of Fuxing City. This is the first time that the neutral status of Fuxing City has been recognized by a country or a major power, and at the same time, the son of Duke Michael, Earl Higg, has been added to the position of Marquis, the Luojia River Plain has been added as a marquis's fief, the existing army has been retained as the Marquis's self-defense army, and three years of tribute have been exempted!

Higg, who was far away in the Druid territory, didn't expect that he would be shot while lying down, Arad was called the emperor, and there were only a few marquises, and he didn't do anything, so he was a marquis! This Arad was indeed much more generous than Catherine. Arad's abacus is well known, since he can't take the Roga River Plain, and there is a contradiction between Higg and Catherine, of course Arad has to make some fuss about it.

The value of Fuxing City is not unclear, and the strength of the Fifth Legion in the Luojia River Plain is not unclear to him, since he can't take it or eat it, then hold it and offer it, at least it can make Catherine upset, so that she can't figure out whether she has a deal with Higg or not, so as to gradually disintegrate King Qin's camp.

The tacit understanding of the truce formed between Arad and the Roga River Plain had already made Catherine suspicious, but now that Arad had added fuel to the fire, and simply forcibly kidnapped Higg, the Rodga River Plain, and the revival city to her chariot, Catherine was even more suspicious.

If Higg doesn't want to be crowned, Fuxing City and the Roga River Plain should make a move against Arad's accession to the throne, even if they don't send troops to fight, at least they must speak out against Arad as emperor and always stand by Catherine's side. But Higg is far away in a foreign land, how can he possibly express his position in a short time? On the issue of such a position, in Fuxing City and in Luojia Plain, no matter who it is, they dare not speak on behalf of Higg, nor are they qualified to speak on behalf of Higg.

Catherine, of course, wants to believe that Higg will not defect, but the current state of fact is in front of her, Fuxing City is neutral, Luo Jiahe is still moving, Higg himself is resigned, although Fuxing City still provides financial help to herself, but on the grounds of neutrality, she has cut off all military material aid, that is, it is okay to ask for money, weapons and equipment, no! Higg's ambiguous attitude did make Catherine suspicious, and it also greatly affected the morale of her army.

A month after Arad ascended the throne, the high-morale Arad camp swore to cross to the south and divided into five armies to launch a full-scale general attack on Findel's defense along the river. The west road is the former Fourth Army Corps and now the Seventh War Zone, sending 500,000 troops to launch a general attack on the upper reaches of the Findel River; The Second Theater sent 500,000 troops, the First Theater sent 500,000 troops, and the Fourth Theater sent 400,000 troops from west to east, attacking the middle and lower reaches of the defense line along the river, of which 400 Paladin Legions were in the middle of the First Legion; The Third Theater dispatched 450,000 troops to carry out a general attack on the Kolenwa Department and the lower reaches of the defense line along the river. The total number of troops participating in the general attack reached 2,350,000, which exceeded the combined strength of Catherine's 1st and 2nd Army Corps.

The total strength of Catherine's 1st and 2nd Corps is less than 2 million, and it is distributed on the defense line along the river for more than 2,000 kilometers, and the five-way army concentrates on attacking five points, as long as one or two points are broken through, and then swings the division deep into Catherine's deep area, it can directly attack the royal city of Zolma, or it can be outflanked from the rear of the defense line along the river, and the entire defense line will be disintegrated from the inside, no matter which way, the entire defense line system along the river will collapse immediately, and the scattered defenders along the defense line along the river will be annihilated one by one.

This seemingly impregnable line of defense along the river, which was operated by the First and Second Army Corps for ten years, relied on this line to confront Arad for ten years, and became a topic of conversation among Catherine's court and the field. But the weakness of this defense system is obvious, that is, the forces are too scattered to deal with each other, and it is okay to deal with a small group of enemies, but to deal with a really strong enemy blade, it is simply self-defeating.

Catherine is not unaware, and neither are the two marshals unaware, but this is a helpless thing, unless she is willing to give up a large territory and put herself in a more disadvantageous situation, she is absolutely unwilling to give up the line of defense along the river.

The battle was indeed fierce, and the 1st and 2nd Legions added hundreds of crossbow chariots to protect along the river, posing a huge threat to Arad's army, but after all, it was still too little for such a long defensive line.

Catherine and Krusov were not without a countermeasure, they knew that the enemy's long-planned attack, the defense line along the river was difficult to hold, they gave up part of the area, concentrated their forces, focused on defense, and could also take the initiative to attack, and the enemy in their own territory based on the geographical advantage, no matter how bad it was, they could retreat to a few fortresses leading to the royal city, although this would lose a large amount of territory, but at least they could preserve their strength.

The battle was as the two sides had envisioned, the defense line along the river was quickly lost, the Arad army drove straight in, and the riverbank plain and the defenders engaged in fierce movement battles, but the paladin legion was invincible and invincible on the plain.

Catherine's army gradually lost the initiative, and after losing more than 400,000 troops on both sides, it had to retreat to the second line of defense. This line of defense consisted mainly of a few hills and mountains and a few forts, and although the forts were not too dangerous, the defending side of the city with the concentration of crossbow chariots was greatly strengthened, and completely kept Arad's army out of the fortress.

Arad's paladins have no advantage over the siege, coupled with more than two months of battle, it has become the end of a strong crossbow, and the logistics supply is gradually unable to supply, since the established strategic objectives have been completed, the defense line along the river has been disintegrated, and the territory occupied by Catherine has been reduced by half, and Catherine, who has lost a large part of the territory, is estimated to not last long.

Catherine had a feeling that made Dragon City fly, and only then did she realize the importance of the northern battlefield. The Fifth Army and the Arad coalition forces tacitly agreed to a truce, and everyone knew that Arad dared to use so many soldiers and horses to launch a general attack, and it was precisely because of the formation of this tacit understanding that Arad did not have much to worry about. Without the presence of Higg, the acting marshal of the Fifth Army, this general offensive of Arad was, perhaps, a few years ago.

In this kind of confrontation between the two sides, their own strength is still weak, even the enemy is the object of wooing, not to mention that the Fifth Legion has always been fighting on the front line, and the hard work is high, but Catherine asked Sklell to question his powerful marshal because of a false statement of awe, although he did not force Higg to defect, but the Fifth Legion's observation of the fire from the other side has made Catherine regret it.

Now even if Higg comes back, she may not dare to use it, because she herself doesn't know whether Higg has a tacit understanding with Arad, whether Higg has defected, and the fief that Arad gave Higg is even more suspicious. The bitter fruit has to be swallowed by himself, and the strength of King Qin, who was originally in a good situation, because Higg reversed the situation alone, this person is really terrible, which makes Catherine love and hate at the same time.

Arad's claim to be emperor made Catherine also restless, and her original position as queen was orthodox, but now Arad has occupied the orthodox position by becoming emperor, making herself a rogue, and the morale of the army and civilians has been greatly hit.

"Message!" Catherine suppressed her anger and said loudly, "Kill all the Baschi and others, and never use them, and all the sons and daughters of Charles, Avanti, and others who participated in the case of Count Higg will be beheaded!" Catherine couldn't admit that she had forced Higg away, and she had to take these responsibilities to her prime minister and their children.

……