I am the son of the traveler

Chapter 162 The Northern Federation is destroyed

Coming out of Nicoleides' ward, Antigonus has been in a low mood, which is very normal. No one can laugh when one of his elders suffers from such a serious illness, unless he and this elder relationship is poor.

"Your Majesty, your wedding with Helen..."

Senonides' voice sounded at this moment. Antigonus glanced at him, thought for a while and still did not refuse, then nodded and said, "Go get ready, hurry up, let Nikokli Des was able to witness it firsthand."

"Obey, Your Majesty..."

……

The wedding of Antigonus and Helen was hastily prepared under this background. The wedding venue of the two people will be in front of the Temple of Hera. This is a temple dedicated to Hera, the God of Marriage. Most Macedonians will choose this place. Weddings are held here to pray for the Queen’s blessing on this wedding.

Although Antigonus is a king, he will not be divorced from the masses, and this tradition that applies to all common people is inevitable for him.

Therefore, the wedding was held on May 5, more than half a month later, in hasty preparations.

Under the eager eyes of the residents of the whole city, Antigonus personally went to the manor of Senonides to welcome Helen dressed up, and together they went to the Temple of Hera not far from the Great Temple of Zeus. Heavily armed soldiers stood guard, and they formed a human wall to block the crowds of onlookers on both sides of the street and prevent them from offending the king.In front of the soldiers, most of the children in the city put on immaculate white robes, wore flower crowns on their heads, and held pots full of petals in their hands, throwing petals at the approaching king and queen.

Although Antigonus had no choice but to agree to the marriage, he couldn't help but be infected by the atmosphere around him when he actually participated in it. He held Helen's soft little hand with a smile, looked at the cheering civilians around him, and also accepted the soldiers. They paid homage with reverent eyes.

Behind Antigonus and Helen, twelve pairs of teenagers and girls in white robes and olive branch crowns followed closely. They were beautiful and holy, just like the angels in Antigonus' memory.

It only takes less than 10 minutes from the Senonides Manor to the Temple of Hera. Antigonus and Helen quickly completed the journey. When they reached the steps of the temple, Antigonus looked up. It seemed that Senonides, Hipparchus, and a group of Macedonian officials were already in place, and Nicoclides was also standing weakly in the crowd with the support of his servants, looking at Antigonus with a gratified face.

Seeing that Nicoclides was able to stand up, Antigonus felt a little relieved, but he quickly raised his head again. He remembered what the doctor said, that the old philosopher's days were numbered.

Taking a deep breath, Antigonus took Helen's hand and walked slowly up the steps. The eyes of everyone in the audience were focused on them. Although this was not the first time that Antigonus encountered this situation, Antigonus There was still tension.

One step, two steps, three steps, more than a dozen steps seemed to become infinitely long, and Antigonus's heart gradually moved away...

……

That night, the entire city of Pella fell into a carnival, and the citizens were all happy for the king's wedding. Besides, many of them were more concerned about when the new queen would give birth to a prince. A rising country brings a legitimate orthodox heir.

In the dungeon of the Vigina Palace, Euphemia, who was imprisoned, sat decadently in a corner listening to the continuous cheers outside. This scene seemed familiar. Looking back, on that autumn day more than ten years ago, Philip, who was still the king, married her in a grand ceremony. At that time, she was so proud of herself, she jumped from an ordinary nobleman to a high queen, and became the pillow of His Majesty the king.

On the night of the wedding, the city of Pera seemed to be so lively.She thought to herself.

However, there are differences. The city of Pella more than ten years ago was far from the scale it is today. At that time, the Kingdom of Macedonia was still huddled east of Thermopylae, a small country of Quer.But now, after Antigonus succeeded to the throne, the Macedonian Kingdom even occupied the entire Ogrell Peninsula, and also swallowed up a large piece of wealthy land in the Gillies Federation, and the population and size of Pella City doubled.

Although I really don't want to admit it, this is the fact. Antigonus gave this small country a new life and personally created her into an undoubted regional power.

Thinking of this, a wry smile appeared on the corner of Euphemia's mouth.

……

On the fifth day after the wedding, Nicolides let go of his last knot and died with a smile on his face. All the residents of the city were mourning the death of this respected old philosopher. Antigonus and a group of All the officials attended the cremation ceremony of Nicoleides' body. In the whispered chanting of the priests, the wooden frame on which Nicoleides was lying shouting a silver coin was ignited, and the dry The inflammable object instantly ignited a raging fire, and quickly devoured Nicolides' body. Looking at this scene, Antigonus's mind was blank, and he felt nothing. Even Helen who was standing beside him grabbed his arm. None responded.

After the cremation ceremony, the ashes of Nicolides were put into clay pots by the priests and will be sent to the royal cemetery of the Kingdom of Macedonia outside the city for burial-he was not eligible to be buried in the royal cemetery, but Antioch In view of his diligent service to the two monarchs, Ke Jian made an exception to let him be buried in the cemetery, and the tomb was arranged next to King Philip's tomb.

On the second day after Nikoklides' death, Helen and her two maids who were imprisoned in the dungeon were brought out and publicly executed on the city square in front of the Palace of Virgina. The execution platform was built, the rough hemp rope was put around their necks, and they were hanged-when the woman who was convicted of treason was confirmed dead, the crowd cheered, and they still had Nikokli in their hearts. The grief of Des's death, but the joy of the traitor's death undoubtedly diluted a lot of this grief.

As the so-called double happiness comes to the door, shortly after Euphemia's death, a good news from the front line was delivered to Antigonus's desk with the arrival of a ship. The main force went all the way to the Li'an stronghold [-] miles south of the capital of the Northern Federation, Shawar. This stronghold is the southern gate to defend the city of Shawar, and it is also the place where the remnants of the Northern Federation's main force retreated after being defeated.

Antigonus knew what this meant. The Northern Federation army trapped in the Li'an stronghold would not be able to stop the First Legion's troops anyway. It was only a matter of time before "One-Eyed" Antigonus defeated Chavar.

And that was indeed the case. At the same time, outside the stronghold of Li'an in Shame County, a siege battle was in full swing.

Under the leadership of "One-Eyed" Antigonus, the veterans of the First Legion surrounded the stronghold built between the two hills, because the Gillis failed to occupy the commanding heights of the hills on both sides, so this place has already been occupied at this time. Controlled by the Macedonians, 32 heavy equipment of the Legion stood on the commanding heights on both sides, throwing boulders or fireballs at the stronghold of the Gillis.

The attack from the sky caused the Gilis soldiers to flee wildly. They raised their shields in vain, trying to protect themselves from being killed in this catastrophic attack. The attack of the people relied on the wall to continuously shoot arrows or throw javelins outside the city, but most of their shots were blocked by the round shields raised by the Macedonian veterans, and only one or two unlucky ones were shot by the arrows drilled into the shield. , and was quickly dragged behind for medical treatment.

"Attack! Attack!"

Under the raised Macedonian round shields, the centurions with horse temples in their helmets roared loudly, and the soldiers in front of him roared loudly, and their running speed also increased, and there were occasional dings above their heads. There was the sound of clanging shields, but the soldiers were not affected by this, and the phalanxes in units of battalions were still moving closer to the city wall.

As the phalanx was only a dozen meters away from the city wall, the centurions under the shields issued orders to line up one after another, and then the soldiers in the front row ran towards the bottom of the city wall and formed a human wall under the city wall. The farther away from the city wall, the lower the shields held by the soldiers to ensure that the comrades behind can walk directly on the shields and climb up the city walls along the shield slope formed by them-the city walls of this stronghold are only two or three meters high, so the soldiers Able to climb the walls directly without the aid of siege machines.

Seeing that the slope formed by the Macedonian soldiers was gradually rising, the Gilis soldiers on the city wall hurriedly lifted up the stones and threw them down, trying to overturn the enemies below. The stones they threw directly smashed several unprepared Macedonian soldiers Turned over, and then rolled down the slope along with the stones. The soldiers who climbed up behind saw this and tried to avoid it, but they were rolled down together.

Seeing that throwing stones was useful, other Gillis soldiers quickly went to look for stones and prepared to throw them. The Aguilian axemen who followed behind these phalanxes quickly raised their javelins and shot at the defenders on the city wall to suppress them.A pair of soldiers working together to lift the heavy boulder were just about to throw the stone out, but a javelin flew in and pierced one soldier's chest directly. The soldier let go with a scream and fell down. The moment his comrade let go, the stone in his hand fell heavily, smashing his legs to pieces.

Under the cover of Aguilia's axemen, the slope formed by the phalanx soldiers gradually took shape, and the soldiers behind roared and climbed up, stepping on the shields raised by their comrades, and rushed up to avoid accidental injury when they charged. The Giria axemen also stopped shooting, which gave the defenders a chance to counterattack. Those defenders grabbed the javelins on the side and threw them at the Macedonian phalanx infantry who rushed up. The damage in this short distance was extremely strong, and the shields of the Macedonian soldiers were directly broken, and then they were inserted into their chests without weakening, and the charging Macedonian soldiers fell down immediately.

The other soldiers who did not fall had no time to see their wounded comrades, and rushed up the city wall roaring.A Macedonian veteran stepped on the stone wall stack, and his feet exerted a lot of force. He jumped up and rushed towards a Gillis soldier. Before the latter had time to react, he was crushed by the veteran. The experienced veteran used a shield to suppress the body of the Gillis soldier, and the Sifus dagger in his right hand inserted into the enemy's neck from the side, directly slashing his aorta.

The bravery of this Macedonian veteran inspired the morale of his follow-up comrades, but not every soldier had his luck. A Macedonian soldier had just jumped into the air when he was pierced by a spear stabbed by a Gillis soldier, and blood spurted from the wound in an instant. The unlucky Macedonian soldier only had time to utter a scream before his body was thrown out and he fell heavily on the cold ground. He tried to get up, but all the strength in his body was leaking from the wound, and he could only wait for death in despair. 's arrival

These copper shield pikemen who gave up the Sarisa spears and used short swords to fight also performed extremely well in the siege battle. They quickly defeated the Gillis soldiers who were stubbornly resisting on the city wall, and then opened the city gate to welcome the outside world. After they opened the city gate, the Macedonian cavalry who had been waiting outside roared into the stronghold and rushed into the chaotic crowd on the road.

Although there are more than 3000 soldiers in the Li'an stronghold, there are only more than 2000 soldiers who have the courage to resist. After the city wall was breached, the Gilis soldiers in the stronghold were even more unwilling to resist. They rushed into the camp with the Macedonian cavalry More and more Gillis people have chosen to surrender...

After capturing the stronghold of Li'an and receiving the military supplies stored here, "One-Eyed" Antigonus led the legion to continue marching north, intending to overthrow the so-called Northern Federation regime in a short time.And when the news of the fall of Li'an's stronghold spread to Shawar City, there was an uproar in the city. Whether it was the new parliament or the streets and alleys, the Gillis living in this city were wrapped in fear, and the topic of surrender was also discussed. spread among the population.

As the founder of the Northern Federation, Saroyan is undoubtedly an advocate against surrender. He advocates gathering all the citizens of Shawar to defend the federal capital, resist the Macedonian army, and buy time for the arrival of reinforcements from the Central Federation (however, in fact the Central Federation is It is impossible to send reinforcements, because they are still troubled by the sudden attack of the Principality of Harlan).But the group of people in the parliament are unwilling to listen to his stupid words. Even a complete federation cannot deal with the Macedonians. How can they, the old, the weak, the sick, and the disabled succeed.

Therefore, on the night before the Macedonian army was about to approach the city, the councilors who made up their minds manipulated the only remaining city defense forces in the city to launch a coup. The young consul who escaped "stabbed him to death with a sword, and then cut off his head and preserved it with lime. After the Macedonian army approached the city the next day, everyone took Saroyan's dead head out of the city and surrendered.

(End of this chapter)