Chapter 1027
Fortress of Broken Boundary Mountain, on the road to Blood Skeleton Valley.
Time gradually advanced to the end of winter, but the weather not only did not improve, but began to become worse-the rare few days of clear skies seemed to have never existed before, covered by endless clouds Covered with wind and snow.
In the cold wind, a huge legion of cavalry followed the ancient road left by the sixth generation of Brandon I, maintaining a formation of four or five horses in a row. Lined up in a long and narrow queue, marching towards the Valley of Blood Skeletons;
Riding on horses covered in leather armor, walking on the wilderness that is sometimes bumpy and sometimes stable, the Knights are burdened with a heavier burden than before. His luggage, even his armor wrapped in warm fur, finally began to adapt to the winter and hellish weather.
Of course, thanks to the hard work of the defenders of the Duanjieshan Fortress...Standing on a gentle slope, Count Eckert, sighing, looked towards the road far away.
This is the Northern Wasteland of Duanjieshan—not to mention the settlements, even silhouettes are impossible within a dozen kilometers; under such severe conditions, a relatively complete road that can be marched normally can be maintained. It is simply unimaginable.
"Master Eckert——!"
The loud shouts and the sound of horseshoes echoed under the sky, and a cavalry holding the Golden Lion flag on the black background galloped on the side of the queue. , Until he saw the silhouette of the count of Fury Castle, he hurriedly held the reins.
"By the order of the Duke-the Floating Void City ahead has completed its mooring and stationing in the Camp of the Blood Skeleton Valley. At present, two thousand Legion soldiers and the Duke's direct army are camping around the Horn Fort!"
"Legion Knight is stationed on the east and west sides of the Blood Skeleton Valley, and the two wings of the horn fort are stationed to ensure that the surrounding area must be flat wilderness, and must not be close to glaciers and highlands; Sweeping and investigating!"
"Understand!"
The frowning Fury Castle count didn't ask a word, and didn't look at looked towards. The attendant behind him reached out: "Map!"
The attendants who rushed over unfolded a somewhat simple map directly on the horse's back.
Looking at this map of the glacier wasteland that has not changed much since the "sage" Brandon I, Castle of Fury count frowned even more.
It looks like a flat glacier wasteland, but in fact it is composed of large and small broken hills and rugged areas; there are glaciers, cliffs, peaks, frozen lakes... it is really convenient for large-scale The place where the army is deployed is really only the Valley of Blood Skeletons.
After seeing the terrain with his own eyes, Eckert can basically determine that the battle of the "Sage" Brandon I’s Blood Skeleton Valley was not an accident, but a careful plan. , And designed a big battle.
Only there, the discipline and formation of the Empire’s army, the advantages of cavalry assault and long-range crossbowmen’s counterattack can be fully utilized; otherwise, no matter how many troops are stuck in the fortress, no matter how many troops there are. At the top of the team, they were drowned alive by a large number of monsters;
And if they encounter the enemy in the broken wilderness and cannot maintain the formation of the imperial army, I am afraid that only the front line will be destroyed by the monsters and the Evil Gods. Washed down, and then divided and slaughtered.
The ultimate battle between tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of armies to determine the fate of Two Great Influences... is just the final result and a throw away; the real key lies in how to put all the troops on the battlefield, and Ensure that the final battlefield is the most beneficial to oneself.
At this moment, Eckert count suddenly realized how wise it was for Duke Loren to do his best to develop trade, unify the military system, and finally hollow out the wealth of Byrne Church in the past few years. .
Because what you want to do all this requires massive manpower, material and financial resources, as well as a steel-like disciplined organization; who can prepare faster, more, and better for all the war needs Once it’s finished, put it to the place where it needs to be put, and whoever can win the absolute initiative.
To a certain extent, who will win the war is likely to have been decided before the war begins; no matter how the Knight alone can fight one hundred against one hundred, he can only set off unremarkable in the heaven overflowing giant wave. Waves.
So a better commander will ensure that this kind of decisive battle will not happen at all-in the preparation stage of both sides, the enemy will be eliminated in the bud, and finally overtake it with a completely crushing attitude. .
biting cold wind in the wilderness, let Eckert count wake up from endless contemplation, poke a few marks on the map with the coat of arms on the ring, and then hand it to the messenger:
p>"Give this map to Lanmaros count in Lake City and Regrel count in White Horse Peak, and order them to lead their men and cooperate with the Imperial Rangers to start reconnaissance near the marked location. "
"You are not allowed to let go of a cave, and you must not miss a trace; once you find a trace of the enemy, report it immediately, and you are not allowed to organize a battle without authorization!"
"As you bid! "
The messenger who received the map slid directly into his arms, pulled up the flag, and continued running along the queue to the next stop.
"Reconnaissance of the enemy, is this to prepare for a battle with Xiong Yingwang of Azores?" Looking at the messenger who had already run away, the attendant behind Ackert couldn't help but ask.
The expressionless Count of Fury looked back and glanced over his servant with an excited look, and couldn't help frowning.
……………………
"On the contrary-we use cavalry on such a large scale to carry out armed reconnaissance, posing as if we are cleaning the battlefield and preparing for war. Just to avoid an immediate confrontation with Xiong Yingwang."
Looking at the top of the horn fort tower in the Valley of Blood Skeletons, looking at Lucien, who was still confused, Loren explained in a deep voice.
The gray-eyed boy standing behind him said nothing, but he couldn't hide his curious expression on his face.
The black hair wizard did not answer him immediately, but kept his eyes fixed on a desolate valley of blood skeletons; within less than an hour of staying in the horn fort, two thousand Legion soldiers and Byrne of the Empire The Knights have begun to surround the castle, building ring fortifications and camps in the snow against the cold wind.
I have to admit that the "black city wall" of the empire is second to none in duchy in terms of endurance or adaptability; even in the permafrost of the wilderness, they can also use shields. Dig trenches with shovel, and even build "retaining walls" from the already civilized snow.
With the assistance of two thousand Legion soldiers, in just one hour, a ring camp built around the castle has taken shape; with the simplest retaining wall, trench and camp area;
Even in the "inner ring" near the castle, Legion soldiers reserved a large area of excavated "open space" temporarily as a material distribution center, and later used to build grain warehouses, military hospitals, and ambulances. In accordance with the speed of the excavation, simple roads have been repaired as the project progresses.
According to the Legion commander who reported to Loren, they almost followed the standards of a “semi-permanent barracks” to build this “temporary fortress”;
and Looking at the current project progress, the most basic construction can be completed in one day, and it can be used normally within a week; at most two months, this military camp can exist "semi-permanently".
The counts who came with Loren were almost silent when they heard this reply.
One day, one night can build a fortress...it is absolutely impossible to replace it with the Knights of Byrne.
As for the reason-except because Legion soldiers are almost all farmers and craftsmen, it is because the military system of the empire was unified before twelve generations; the soldiers of East Sackland and The soldiers of Western Sacramento may differ in their accents and uniforms, from boots to armor, from weapons to training...all the same.
Loren does not expect the Knights of Byrne to be like the Legion of the Empire, nor does he need it; he only needs these people to understand the purpose and painstaking effort of his unification of the military system, and no longer oppose him. enough.
Although the division of the two generations did not separate the various territories of Byrne, at least there was a semi-independence-the poorer regions are better, and the more prosperous count leaders count on only Duchy serves and pays taxes, and the rest of the affairs are handled by himself, and he no longer accepts Duchy's interference.
In the wilderness in the distance, you can already see the marching cavalry team appearing within the control area of the horn fort; several cavalry galloping on horseback galloping towards the fortress.
"It's the messenger who went to contact the hussars, they are back!"
Half-step ahead, Lucien looked at the flag in the cavalry hand, turned his head and glanced to his side. black hair wizard: "I came to send the message so soon, it is likely to have discovered something-Lord Loren, we really... won't war with the Azores right away?"
"It's not for us to decide , It’s something that must be decided by the commander of the Azores."
Loren shook his head with a calm expression: "We have to stand from their perspective and think about it-if I were Xiong Yingwang, Should I immediately destroy this group of enemies who are trying to station in the Blood Skeleton Valley?"
"This...should it?"
Some self-doubt gray-eyed teenagers have very expressions. Uncertain: "Once we build camps and fortresses in the Valley of Blood Skeletons, it will greatly threaten their existence, and it will also be the biggest obstacle to their attack on the fortress of Duanjieshan-without destroying us, attacking the fortress of Duanjieshan. At times, you will definitely be enemies!"
"Yes, but this is our wishful thinking, not theirs." Loren laughed, lightly sighed: "From the side of the Azores, This may be the result they want."
"en?"
Lu Sien's face is unimaginable.
"Think about it this way—they wiped out all our reconnaissance positions, so we sent scout cavalry; we found their tracks, so we sent an army of cavalry to try to capture them; they wiped out With this cavalry, we mobilized a stronger army to directly control the Blood Skeleton Valley to all areas near the fortress of Duanjieshan."
"Think about it this way, isn't it particularly logical?"
Lu Sien was nodded, but he didn't understand it, but the expression "Although I don't understand, it makes sense."
"In short, every move of the Empire is a unilateral reaction to the stimulus of the elves. It is very passive and very predictable." Loren explained:
"After the cavalry of the Blaha count was wiped out, the empire had two options-either shrank in the fortress and couldn't defend it, or proactively attacked to expand the scope of control to ensure that no similar situation would happen again;"
"Either one is within Xiong Yingwang's expectations; so their goal has been achieved, and what they have to do next is to avoid our control and continue to do what they have been doing before ; And at the same time..."
"At the same time, the empire can waste a lot of manpower and material resources to maintain the existence of the Blood Skeleton Stronghold?!"
Lu Sien suddenly awakened , Broke out directly.
black hair wizard slightly nodded, I agree with it.
"So I think the other party will try to avoid fighting with us in the short term; even deliberately release some bait to interfere with our attention, so that we have something to do and don’t think about'where are they?' This kind of trouble."
"So when the enemy really appears, we probably won't have any preparation at all." Loren's face has a little more playful smile:
"The last thing they have to do is to destroy our low morale and poorly supplied fortress."
It was obviously a joke, but Lu Sien swallowed in fear.
"Then...what should we do to prevent this from happening?"
Lu Sien asked very hard.
"Simply put, it is to seize the initiative in this battle-of course, it is not simple to do this." Loren speculated: "We must hurry up to find their location and figure out their What do you want to do."
"This is the real top priority right now, so Connold promised us to let the Azores captive'escape'-although it seems Hope is slim, but as long as there is a small possibility, then it should not be let go."
"And we have controlled the Blood Skeleton Valley, although it will consume a lot of manpower and material resources; but the elves are compressed in the range of activities They will also be very simple; their supplies are very limited. If they can't capture the fortress of Duanjieshan before they are exhausted, it will be annihilated."
Dalton looked gloomy in the gap between the two of them talking. Kander has already walked to the top of the tower, staring at the face of the black hair wizard with cold eyes from start to finish.
"Bad news?"
Loren asked instinctively.
Dalton slightly nodded: "Our rangers have found Seth Braha count, Lord Knight of Nazer, and the battlefield where the hussars were annihilated, just less than half a day away. ."
"Except for the traces on the battlefield, all the corpses, weapons, and damaged armor of the Azores—if they existed—all disappeared without a trace, only the cavalry. Our bodies are still in place."
Loren sighed: "Then...what's the good news?"
"We found Nazer Knight."
"He is still alive?!"
"He is not dead." Dalton emphasized:
"As for whether he is still alive...it depends on what you think."