Only a little more than 6,000 people, most of them destitute citizens, are willing to go to the dark regions.

The city of Ascatra originally had a population of 110,000, but after the Knights occupied Am, commercial activities ceased and the floating population was lost.

After the Knights took over Am, some of the citizens fled the city, and after the uprising, the merchants and some of the citizens who did not participate in the revolt also left, leaving only about 40,000 people in the city.

There were a lot of idle merchant ships in the port, and most of the citizens of Ascatra had stayed on the ships, and after the organization of the six-member council, one merchant ship after another changed the cargo hold into simple cabins, and the citizens who were willing to leave went to sea by boat and ran to the unknown.

Thirty-four thousand people remained in the city of Askatra, a number that continues to dwindle and leaves every day.

The people who left wanted to flee to other cities on the continent of Faeron and start their lives again incognito, but after the impulse, the people who calmed down regretted it and were afraid.

Some people even began to doubt the truths preached by Bledero, and doubted whether mortals could control their own destiny and transform the world and create a happy life by their own efforts.

Bredrow wants to prove his truth by leading the Ams to a better life, but the intervention forces of the surrounding countries will not give the Ams time, and the armies of Tyrrell and Baldur's Gate have crossed the border and entered the Amm border, setting up advance barracks, waiting for the armies of the other countries to assemble.

The time left for the Amms was measured in days, maybe ten, maybe twenty days, before the enemy marched under the city of Askatra, erected trebuchets and siege engines, and breached the evil city polluted by demons.

This is a paradox, and any theory cannot be trusted by the general public when it cannot be proven by facts.

The citizens of Ascatra were not Bredero's followers, they were only skeptical under Bredero's influence, and their faith in the gods was shaken.

Essentially, the revolt was based on the Faeron Gods, a rebellion by the Vorgents against the Gods who sought to gain their fortune.

However, the goddess Waujin left her kingdom and was unable to provide any protection to the believers, and the Am's revolt became the first confrontation between the common people and the gods in the history of Ferron.

Among the citizens of the uprising, there were very few who could truly understand what Bredero was preaching.

Even the leader of the uprising, Dame Hathaway, who was elected prime minister, was not a red believer.

……

The New Six-member Council was in a state of disarray, the grim situation, the bleak prospects, the news that the enemy had entered Ammu kept coming back from the front, and the rebellious people, who lacked unity of thought, were very divided.

The standing leaders were at a loss, and they themselves had no idea how they could achieve the results they wanted—to go back to their old lives.

"Perhaps, surrender is our only option." A representative of wealthy citizens finally said this.

"And then, will we be forgiven?"

Handak said coldly, "Do you still have illusions about the gods? Once upon a time, a gladiatorial arena had been built in the Bronze Crown Inn, where the wicked forced slaves to fight with wild beasts, and many children were held in the slave ship prison, but the nobles and temple priests turned a blind eye! They don't care if we live or die, they don't care what we live. Now, how many paladins have we killed? In the eyes of priests and lords, we are worse than demons, will they forgive demons? ”

"We shouldn't have revolted, we just paid some gold...... It's too late now, it's all Bredero's fault! ”

The wealthy citizen covered his face and sobbed, "If he had never been to Am, we wouldn't have ended up like this......"

Handak was silent for a moment, he was a little shaken, but his career as a gladiator made him more aware of the cruel nature of the world than the average person.

"No!" Handak shook his head and said, "Weak and obedient people will only suffer more!" As long as fate is in the hands of others, the weaker you are, the more miserable your fate will become, and if I don't know how to resist, I am still suffering in the dungeon of the Bronze Crown Hotel, or I have died in a desperate fight against the beast. ”

……

Of the more than 30,000 citizens, less than half decided to build barricades, climb the walls, and take part in the battle for the defense of the city with the Mine rifles provided by Bredero.

The rest of the people, hoping that after the destruction of the city, begged the gods and attendants for forgiveness, and shifted the blame to others, claiming that they had only been coerced and deceived.

Excluding the old and weak, women and children, the number of people who can fight and those who are willing to fight in this city is actually less than 5,000.

Bredero provided 600 rifles, which was already the limit of the production capacity of the dark region, and the rebellious people who were actually equipped with rifles were only 600 people.

……

The grey dwarf guerrillas took advantage of the darkness to launch a sniper battle against the Intervention barracks, and the cold guns from 800 meters away did cause chaos at first, and the snipers' culmination was a General Tesser, who was shot in the head while patrolling the barracks.

The high-ranking paladin was not wearing armor when he was shot, and in his understanding, in the military camp, the scout had already explored the surrounding environment, and also confirmed that the city of Ascatra had not organized an army, and thought that it was just a safe and ordinary march, but he did not expect that the enemy had weapons beyond the farthest casting range.

Bullets fired from nowhere in the darkness of the night caused panic among the soldiers and officers, and the night watchmen galloped in the direction from which the shots came, but on the way they stepped on a mine, and the men and horses exploded into the sky.

The daytime march also ran into minefields, and among the mercenaries at Baldur's Gate were high-level thieves, but the progress of demining was not ideal.

The thieves could only disarm the trap inch by inch with experience and skill, and the detection spells cast by the mages were somehow ineffective against the mine traps.

Before the arrival of follow-up reinforcements, the intervention forces of Tesel and Baldur's Gate did not dare to march easily, and the guerrilla tactics did have the effect of delaying the enemy army, but when the reinforcements of the Mystic Fire Knights arrived, this tactic was easily broken by the high-ranking mages.

Flying mages fly over the minefield and use summoning spells to summon boulders to drop them, and the triggered mines explode in pieces under the crush of the rolling boulders.

The high-ranking druids performed seismology, and after the earthquake trembled, the entire minefield that the guerrillas had spent a night laying exploded in the churning earth and rocks, and the tunnels they had dug collapsed.

Taking advantage of the night's sniper battle to be defeated for the first time, the archmages who opened the advanced stealth technique quietly flew over the sniper position, and the law order was smashed down, and the sniper team that had time to transfer in the future suffered heavy losses, and several team members were captured.

……

In the camp of the Intervention Army, in a tent, Ditra, the chief mage of the Knights of the Mystic Fire, stands at the map table.

On the map table, there are several weapons that look like magic wands, which are imitation Mosinagan sniper rifles captured from the guerrillas.

Beside Ditra, there stood a general in heavy armor, he was the right and left hand of the Grand Duke of Flame Fist at Baldur's Gate, the deputy head of the Flame Fist Knights, and General Motes.

"It's hard to imagine that this devil's weapon can shoot more than two thousand yards away!"

General Flame Fist's face was gloomy and terrifying: "Insidious, despicable, can only hide in the shadows and sneak attack, the guy who invented this weapon has no sense of honor!" ”