Chapter 161: Fighter planes appeared and
the troops were strengthened. Two choices were placed in front of Gunderson.
The first option was to storm Fort William and open the passage from the front.
With the arrival of reinforcements, they brought some components of the heavy trebuchet. Now the orc army commanded by Gunderson has twelve heavy trebuchets.
The terrain of Fort William cannot accommodate too many heavy trebuchets. Judging from the number of heavy trebuchets, the orcs are not far away from the garrison of Fort William.
With the suppression of heavy trebuchets and the superiority of troops, if there is no fear of casualties, it is possible to break through Fort William and break through this line of defense from the front.
The second option is to bypass Fort William and break through from the direction of Graveson Castle.
Graveson Castle is the gateway to Black River Castle, located on the northwest bank of Black River.
The Black River is the most important river in the northern part of the Grant Kingdom, with a length of more than a thousand kilometers. This river originates from the Dukedom of Edward, passes through the three northern provinces, passes through the Dukedom of Jonathan, enters the barren highland forest along the coast, and finally converges Entered the sea.
Graveson Castle is located downstream of Black River Castle, sixty kilometers northeast of Black River Castle.
Richard's father, William, led the Sixth Battalion of soldiers to defend Graveson Castle six years ago, and was knighted for his military exploits.
This time the orcs invaded, it was a multi-pronged attack.
In Geda Province, there is still one main force and two partial troops.
The main force, one and a half legions, entered from the Lach Province and broke into the vast area from Flying Eagle Fort to Heihe Fort. It has reached the provincial border and is less than 80 kilometers away from Heihe Fort.
With this orc army next to it, the Northern Legion was stationed at Black River Fort. They did not dare to leave Black River Fort too far, so they could only implement strong walls and clear the field so that the main force of orcs could not plunder.
According to the marching speed of the orcs, this orc army will arrive near Black River Fort in about two days.
Two partial divisions and the other were Gunderson's troops, with five brigades, stationed in the northern part of the Harland Valley, and were in a stalemate with Fort William.
On the other side of the road is Marulande's troops, which consist of three brigades. They have entered the Platos Canyon and are fighting Baron Harden and Baron Sharp.
Due to the heavy pressure from the Orcs in the east, the Northern Army transferred some troops from Graveson Castle. The defenders of Graveson Castle were left with only two main squadrons and four city defense squadrons, with a strength of less than 1,000 troops.
According to common sense, Graveson Castle has more defensive troops than Fort William, so it will be more difficult to attack Graveson.
In fact, this is not the case. The terrain of Fort William is more dangerous than Graveson.
Although Graveson Castle has a moat, the terrain is relatively flat.
This kind of terrain is more suitable for exerting the power of heavy trebuchets.
The main city of Fort William is built in the middle of the valley, and two mountain cities in the east and west are also built on the slopes on both sides.
The city wall sealed off the entire valley. The trebuchets stand on the hillside highlands on both sides. The defending side's trebuchets have a range advantage and are obviously more difficult to attack.
The most core factor is that there are many reinforcements in Harland's territory, which can be easily supported.
Black River Castle was besieged by the main orc army, and the Northern Army could not send reinforcements. Graveson Castle became an abandoned army.
After analyzing the intelligence from the reconnaissance, Gunderson decided to lead four main brigades to attack Graveson Castle, and the remaining brigades were stationed at the northern three forks of Harland Canyon to expand the camp into a large-scale military station.
Building a city can actually be fast or slow. If it were to build a city made of bricks and rammed earth, it would generally take two to three years.
The construction of Fort William and Fort Sophia both took two years.
If only rammed earth walls are built, and the foundation requirements are not strict, the speed will be much faster and can be completed in one or two months.
If you use wood and mud walls, the construction speed will be faster. If there are many people, you can build a strong defensive wall in a few days.
There are huge trees everywhere in the Eagle Mountains, and there is no shortage of wood resources.
Since the orcs had plans to hold on, they spent a few days reinforcing the camp. After Gunderson left some food and fodder, he saw that the main force of orcs had surrounded Black River Castle, and immediately led his troops eastward, detouring for two days to arrive at Graveson Castle.
Because Black River Castle was besieged by orcs, the defenders of Graveson Castle could only seek help from Fort William in the northwest.
After receiving a request for help from the Graveson garrison, Richard fell into thinking for a long time.
The situation has changed again, and new fighters have appeared.
Richard summoned the officers from each squadron and wanted to hear everyone's opinions first.
Roland was the first to speak: "There are still two plans. The first one is quite satisfactory. Take reinforcements to Graveson Castle and fight a war of attrition with the orcs. The second
plan is a bit risky. Concentrate the main force to raid the orcs' back roads and burn down the orc villages. Food."
Seeing that Roland was leaning toward the second option, Martin immediately raised objections.
"Will we encounter a trap if we implement the second plan? Some time ago, the orcs pretended to withdraw their troops and tempted us to fight in the field."
Because the scouts were suppressed by the orcs, Richard did not know whether it was a trap set by the orcs?
The orc camp was not far from Fort William, and he decided to personally conduct a reconnaissance mission to determine the orc intelligence before making plans.
As for the messengers sent by Graveson Castle, Richard also decided to cheer them up and lied that he would set out with soldiers tomorrow and reinforcements would arrive three days later.
Every effort is made in war, and sometimes a little white lie, or outright deception, is needed.
Anyway, it is impossible for Graveson Castle to have reinforcements, and Richard is already their life-saving straw.
If the Graveson defenders can really contain the orc army for a day or two, Richard can seize the opportunity to break through the orc military station.
If the war situation develops to that point, the orcs' strength advantage will be smaller.
"The cavalry squadron is preparing to set off. It will conduct a reconnaissance mission tonight to see if the main force of the orcs is at the Sanchakou Military Station?"
"I'll just go on the reconnaissance mission. You don't have to take the risk."
Seeing that Richard was going to lead the team on the reconnaissance mission, Soros shook his head and objected.
"We still need to go to the front line to take a look. The information is unclear. How can the commander make a decision?" The style
of the army is resolute. After the meeting, Richard asked the third-level knight Lost to command the Fort William army. He and Soros Together, they led the cavalry to the orc camp to investigate the enemy's situation.
They had just left Fort William and were heading towards the Orc Station along the river valley when they saw two black spots in the sky in the distance.
These two black spots are the third-order harpies.
The snake-shaped man discovered something unusual and was about to come down to take a closer look.
Richard and Soros had already unhooked their bows and loosened their bowstrings.
Both of them were rare archers among the soldiers in Northern Xinjiang, and they had enchanted bows and arrows in their hands. The harpy was not aware of it and was hit by the arrow immediately. Like a kite with broken strings, it fell from the sky.
The harpy was still preparing to struggle, and Richard Thoros shot a second arrow.
"Killing a third-level harpy will reward you with 2,000 experience points."
Hearing the prompt from the attribute panel, Richard put away his bow and arrows and looked up to see that his uncle Thoros had also successfully killed another harpy.
Without the harpies to detect them, the orcs seemed blind.
(End of chapter)