Chapter 173: Cutting off
the rear route, Zakli won a great victory, which played a decisive role in the safety of Geda Province.
There are eight orc legions under Kilam's command, with more than 170,000 main orcs and 80,000 auxiliary troops. The war has continued to this day, and there are still about 140,000 main orcs and 60,000 auxiliary troops.
The Grant royal family is the strongest in the province of Lach, followed by the province of Gedda, and the weakest in the province of Gascoigne.
The Lach Province not only has the main force of the Grizzly Bear Legion, but also the two second-line legions of the Flying Eagle and the Feiyan. Together with the strongest noble coalition, it has contained three orc legions, with a main force of 60,000 and an auxiliary force of 30,000.
Even Kilam's headquarters was placed in the Lach Province.
In addition, the Dukedom of Jonathan, which borders the province of Lach, is the most powerful duchy in the Grant Kingdom.
Once the war in Lach Province is unfavorable, reinforcements can also be requested from Duke Jonathan.
Kilam did not dare to weaken the troops in this direction.
If troops are mobilized from the Lach Province, they will immediately be unable to suppress the Grant royal family's army.
In addition, in the northeastern part of the Lach Province, there is also the Earldom of Roger.
The strength of Earl Roger is not weak. With the support of Duke Jonathan, it withstood the attack of an orc army.
Killam invested about 20,000 troops in Earl Roger's territory.
If you don't plan to conquer Earl Roger's territory, you can mobilize several brigades from this direction to join the battle in Geda Province.
Of the remaining hundreds of thousands of troops, the orcs from Geda Province invested one legion, eight brigades, and about 50,000 auxiliary troops.
The heaviest losses were in this direction. Zachary killed 14,000 of the main force, and the army commanded by Richard killed 5,000 in two battles. Counting the defeated orcs, the orcs' losses had exceeded 30,000.
Now there are only 17,000 troops left, of which 6,000 are still auxiliary troops with weak combat effectiveness.
In the province of Geda, the aristocratic coalition of Heihe County commanded by Richard had three thousand troops, the aristocratic coalition commanded by Viscount Luomen had five thousand troops, and the main force of the Northern Army was still intact and there were still 20,000 troops.
The comparison of military strength and combat effectiveness has become imbalanced.
To maintain the front line, reinforcements must be sent to Geda Province.
Kilam invested heavily in the direction of Gascoigne Province this time. Counting an orc army attacking Count Martins, the total number exceeded 84,000. Among them, there are about 54,000 orcs in the main force.
Although there were many casualties in the battle, there are still 48,000 main troops and 26,000 auxiliary troops.
Of the 48,000 main troops, 30,000 were used to suppress the main force of the Wild Lions in Gascoigne Province, and 10,000 were used to fight against the aristocratic coalition. The remaining eight thousand are ready to invest in the Dukedom of Edward to support the battle of another orc front.
This time in the invasion of the Grant Kingdom, the Chinese Front Army commanded by Kilam was the main force, and the orcs in the other two directions needed to cooperate with the Chinese Front Army.
Now that he had received a request for help from Drancy and Gunderson, Kilam could only take care of himself first, and mobilized five brigades of 8,000 orcs from the Gascoigne Province for main support. Five thousand auxiliary soldiers were also mobilized to cooperate with the support soldiers in fighting.
Felik Castle, where Richard was stationed, was not far from Black River Castle, and the battle report was received the next day.
After the orcs retreated, Richard restored communication with Black River Fort. He immediately sent the report of meritorious deeds, along with more than 5,000 orc heads.
Now, Drancy and Gunderson, the remnants of the orc army, are all besieged by Zachary in Graveson Castle.
Richard and Viscount Luomen also received orders from Zachary.
Zachary ordered their two armies to join forces, go north from Fort William, and station troops at the northern entrance of the Harland Valley to cut off the orcs' food routes and block the orcs' reinforcements.
The Northern Army is preparing to siege Graveson Castle for a long time and eat the orcs in western Dren.
It is very dangerous to expose your back to the enemy.
Drenxi's orc army, because it had a strength advantage in the early stage and fought too smoothly, ignored this weakness and made this serious mistake.
After receiving the order, Richard joined Viscount Romen, and 8,000 soldiers marched north along Fort William and once again came to the north entrance of the canyon. The north entrance of Harland Canyon is a three-way intersection, which is considered a relatively important traffic artery in the Eagle Mountains.
Gunderson once established a military station here and left a brigade to garrison it.
However, this brigade was defeated by Richard. Because the situation was unclear and the territory was threatened by Gunderson's tribe, Richard gave up this strategic point after the war.
Although the orcs have regained the military station now, there are only a few hundred garrison troops inside.
These hundreds of garrison troops were all defeated by Richard. Of course, they could not withstand the attack of the eight thousand noble coalition forces in Geda Province. They were quickly killed and their heads were replaced with merit.
The coalition forces of Richard and Viscount Luomen cut off the retreat in western Delenn. Zachary led the Northern Army to surround the remaining troops in western Delennium at Graveson, but was unable to attack the city.
The main force of the Northern Army is more than 20,000 people, and there are about 17,000 orcs in Graveson Castle. The orcs in the castle still have the strength to fight. If they want to conquer this fortress, the Northern Army must kill at least half of its soldiers.
After analyzing the battlefield situation, Zachary believed that the time was not ripe for a decisive battle and chose a long-term siege.
Although there is not much food stored in Graveson Castle, there are about 8,000 captured human slaves. The orcs can rely on cannibalism to survive for two or three months.
It sounds cruel, but this is a life-and-death race war.
It is not uncommon for humans to eat humans in wars, let alone orcs to eat humans.
Time passed like this day by day, and by late April, five groups of orcs had just completed the 300-kilometer mountain road, from the territory of Earl Martins to the north entrance of Harland Canyon.
Facing the prepared noble coalition, the eight thousand orc reinforcements had no chance of winning and could break through the defense of the noble coalition.
In the past ten days, under the auspices of Richard, Richard strengthened the defenses using the camps left by the orcs.
The orcs made a tentative attack and retreated after suffering hundreds of casualties.
The coalition of nobles from the Gedda Province has blocked the northern entrance of the Harland Canyon. If you want to get around here, you have to walk at least 200 kilometers more on the mountain road.
The logistics line is stretched too long, and the food route may be cut off at any time.
If you want to rescue the remnants of Drancy, you must pull out this nail.
If you want to pull out the nail, five large groups of orcs are simply not enough.
The orc reinforcement commander once again sent harpies and wrote a letter asking for help to Kilam.
As time dragged on to May, the situation in the northern frontier of the Grant Kingdom changed again.
Duke Jonathan led the troops to repel the orcs.
The Orc Eastern Front could not resist and had already moved closer to Kilam.
In order to deal with the enemy in the east, Kilam now has no reinforcements at all.
For a time, the province of Geda fell into a long-term sit-down war. No one, no matter humans or orcs, took the initiative to attack.
Instead, they constantly dispatched scouts to investigate the opponent's actions.
In order to deal with the harpies, Richard and Thoros even led a small group of scouts to set up traps and hunted down six or seven harpies.
The harpies learned their lesson quickly after suffering a loss and did not lower their altitude easily. The efficiency of obtaining intelligence from the orcs was also a bit lower.
Time passed slowly like this and lasted until July.
(End of chapter)