"Sit down!" said Catherine, pointing to the chair in the room, "it's not a formal occasion." Don't be inhibited. ”

When Ryan and the others were seated, Catherine asked, "How is it out there now?Where do the people who have poured into the city live?Do they have food to eat?"

Ryan explained with a wry smile: "Catherine, I don't know, I went directly to General Jonas in the morning and returned after forming this team. These are the things that should be asked to Luke or Orlando. ”

Catherine slapped herself on the forehead and said with a smile, "Look at me, I really deserve to be beaten." Catherine's lazy expression made the hearts of all the men present skip a beat, and even the hearts of Faraz and Alina, who were both women, increased their beating rate.

Catherine gently tucked the hair on her forehead behind her ear with her hand, and then said to Ryan, "Do you know where Luke or Orlando are now?"

Ryan replied, "Luke and Orlando are arranging the city defenses in the city wall area. ”

Catherine said, "Let's go now, I don't think I'll be at ease if I can't see it with my own eyes." ”

Ryan persuaded, "It's getting late now, it's better to wait for tomorrow, maybe in a while, Luke and the others will come back." ”

"No!" Catherine shook her head firmly and said to Ryan, "I must go now!"

"Alright then!" Ryan agreed, seeing that persuasion had not worked, and that he himself was actually very concerned about the matter. Soon, Ryan and the others were ready to travel, and Catherine, accompanied by Faraz, got into a very ordinary-looking carriage and marched to the northern wall of the imperial capital under the protection of a few hundred people.

At this time, it was already evening, if it was usual, now many people had already finished their dinner, and then looked for a cool place to cool off, but now, the orc army has arrived at the periphery of the imperial capital, and the imperial officials have evacuated and other news is spreading everywhere in the imperial capital, making the civilians who are already bottomless in their hearts even more uneasy, and many people even deliberately exaggerate when spreading these news, causing local panic in many parts of the city.

"Ryan!" Catherine lifted the curtain of the carriage and poked her head out to Ryan, "where are you now?"

"The civilian area in the north of the city is a one-hour walk to the city wall. ”

"Stop!" Catherine gave a sudden order, and when the carriage came to a stop, Catherine stepped down with Faras's help. Perhaps for the sake of ease of movement, Catherine chose an ordinary robe instead of wearing those elaborate royal attire.

"Come with me!" said Catherine faintly, "go and see my people." ”

Ryan glanced at Franna and motioned for him to hurry up and make arrangements, and the latter nodded slightly, indicating that he understood Ryan's intentions, and quickly turned around and went out to deliver the order.

Catherine and Faras walked side by side, while Ryan and Alendor followed closely behind the two of them, and Colin and a dozen other agile soldiers, dressed in linen mercenary decorations, followed from a distance.

This is the civilian area in the north of Fernando, which occupies one-fifteenth of the entire imperial capital and is home to about 100,000 civilians. Most of the residents here are looking for some work in the shops in those commercial areas, or serving as servants for those officials and nobles, and a small number have their own shops, of course, these shops are basically in this civilian area, and the objects they serve are naturally the commoners here.

The streets here are quite narrow compared to the commercial area, probably enough to accommodate two horse-drawn carriages traveling side by side, and the streets are lined with low-rise housing, and only at the intersection of the two streets are there a few small shops. The streets here are paved with the most ordinary stone slabs, and have hardly been repaired in 200 years, so the pavement is very uneven, and there is a different taste when you walk up. However, although it looks dilapidated, there is no garbage on the ground, and it has been cleaned.

"Hey, have you heard?" about forty or fifty people gathered around the street, and among them was a man dressed in servant's clothes, pretending to be mysterious, "The magic teleportation array in the palace has been opened, and those officials and rich nobles have all run away!"

"Is that true?" asked a woman in her forties, with a bucket waist.

"Of course!" said the man in the servant's garment, looking with disdain at the woman who had lost her figure because of her hard work, "and you don't ask me what I do! Don't forget, I am a second-class cook in the Earl's mansion! Today, the Earl, who has always been known for his particular diet, has not eaten at all, and I heard from the porter that the Earl has rushed to the palace early in the morning. ”

"Then it can't be said that they ran away, right?" said another old man in his fifties, "don't they go to the palace every day to quarrel?"

"Haha, you don't know this!" Another man dressed in mercenary clothes suddenly spoke: "I was originally hired by the Viscount's mansion in the south of the city to be a guard, but today I saw our Viscount go to the palace with his three women and a whole carriage of rare things. I heard the carriage driver who came back later say that in the carriage, one of the favorite concubines of Lord Viscount wanted to take a little more things away, but was scolded by the Viscount fiercely, saying that the number of places in the teleportation array was limited. ”

"You said that now that the orcs have broken through the Thor Fortress and come to the imperial capital, why don't those adults think about how to beat these damn green-skinned mongrels and run away one after another?

Apparently no one could answer this question, and the man in the servant's clothes opened his mouth, but as if he was worried, he did not say anything.

"What are you afraid of! It's a big deal to fight with those green-skinned mongrels!" a strong man with a strong force squeezed into the crowd and shouted loudly: "Do you want to sit at home and wait for death? ”

"You idiot, don't you know that one orc can beat five idiots like you?"

"You bastard, you dare to scold me?"

"Alright, alright, stop arguing!"

"Let's go back and pack our things, maybe we can go with those noble officials too." ”

"Damn, when will you pay me back!"

"When has this been, are you still thinking about this?"

"If you don't pay it back, if the orcs enter the city and kill you, who am I looking for?"

“”

The more these dozens of people talked, the more chaotic they became, and some of them hurried home. This seemed to be a signal, and soon, the group of people gathered around left one after another, with doubts and worries on their faces, telling their family and friends about the news they had just gotten that they didn't know was true or false, and their family and friends would continue to spread after adding something they imagined, and a wave of panic began to spread here.

Catherine, who was on the side, grabbed Faraz's little hand hard, she turned around gracefully, looked at Ryan and Alendor behind her with a pale face, and said a little helplessly: "How can this be? Originally, I promised to open the teleportation array because I didn't want Luke and them to be interfered with by those nobles and officials, but now, the beast ** army has not seen it, but my people have been in chaos first. ”

Everyone was silent, and it was clear that something had gone beyond what had been envisioned and had become a little unmanageable.

"No, we can't go on like this!" Catherine's eyes showed a hint of determination, she held her neck high like a white swan, and looked at the end of the street with a confused but determined face: "Let's go, find Luke at once." We must immediately dispel this panic among our people, otherwise there will be a battle in front and chaos in the back, and the battle will not be fought. ”

On the northernmost wall of the imperial capital, Luke and Orlando were discussing something.

"We outnumber the orcs far in numbers, and if we are desperate to recruit young and middle-aged people into the army, then we can definitely raise an army of more than 2 million," Luke said, "but this is absolutely not possible, we must keep enough men, otherwise even if we defeat the orcs, we ourselves will not be able to cultivate because of lack of manpower, and then the empire will encounter a terrible famine next year." ”

"I know!" Orlando nodded, "By now, I have formed fifteen legions, with a total of 800,000 soldiers. All of my men, both formal and probationary Holy Knights, have been separated as officers. In addition, I will hand over to you the first two legions with a total of 120,000 men, and they will be responsible for the transportation outside the imperial capital. ”

"Are you ready for your battle plan?"

Orlando shook his head and said: "Regarding the defense plan of the imperial capital, in fact, as early as the moment the imperial capital was built 200 years ago, it was formulated by the alchemist Jiexi, one of the seven heroes, and you have also seen it, it was a very detailed plan. However, our current situation is the last of those plans, but I have been hesitating, because with these improvised civilians, it is impossible to stop the fierce attack of the orcs on the city walls. The walls of the imperial capital were inferior to the Thor Fortress in height and thickness. What's more critical is that the entire city wall of the imperial capital spreads for more than 100 kilometers, and the orcs can choose any place to break through, and if we want to defend, we must at least ensure that there are three people standing on every meter of the city wall. According to this number, then we will have 400,000 people on the wall, which is more than a third of our existing manpower. ”

"Then shrink into the city!" Luke said in a faint tone, "According to the last plan of Jercy's plan, only part of the army will be used to resist on the city walls, and the main force will be placed in the city, as much as possible to consume the strength of the orcs, and finally use the most elite 200,000 warriors to deal a fatal blow to the enemy." ”

"But," Orlando's face showed an unbearable look, "In that case, the loss of civilians is too great." ”

While the two were talking, suddenly a herald hurriedly ran over and said loudly, "Lord Luke, General Orlando, Her Majesty the Queen has arrived!"