Chapter 216: Battlefield Initiative
Richard sent out a lot of reconnaissance cavalry. After several days of reconnaissance and cooperating with Zakli's troops, the enemy's situation in Platos Valley was clearly understood.
The orcs on this route are indeed relatively strong, with a total of five brigades, totaling about tens of thousands of people.
Richard personally went to Platos Castle and discussed the distribution of the battle lines with Zachary. The defense of the Platos Valley Passage is still dominated by Zacli's troops.
After the orc army approached, Zachary had mobilized three brigades of the Atonement Legion to the Platos fortress group.
Since yesterday, the orcs have launched a tentative attack. Heavy trebuchets were erected, and the trebuchets from both sides began to bombard each other.
Because the Platos Fortress Group has a geographical advantage, the trebuchets are all on the mountainside, and their range and power are much farther than those of the orc trebuchets.
The orc siege troops suffered some hardships, and the heavy trebuchets would also destroy a few.
There are three thousand people guarding here. The orcs want to break through the defense line. In a short time, the ten thousand troops are still slightly insufficient.
Although he did not know the specific battle plan of the orcs, since the intelligence gradually became clear that the main force of the orcs was not in the northern part of Gedda Province, Richard decided to take the initiative and eat the three orc brigades in the northern part of the military station, and then cooperate with Viscount Luomen to surround and annihilate them. Two orc brigades on the road.
Nowadays, the Haaland Territory has strong troops and horses, and its strength is far beyond what it was three years ago.
Only when you know yourself and your enemy can you fight without danger.
Although the orcs have good intelligence capabilities, they have placed spies in Black River Fort. However, the Haaland territory restricts population migration, and the efficiency of information transmission is very low. The orcs have not yet placed intelligence personnel in the Harland Territory, and they have not yet figured out the strength of the Harland Territory.
The orcs overestimated their combat effectiveness and paid no attention to the development of Harland's territory.
Therefore, the plan was made very rashly, thinking that three large groups of orcs could contain the army in Harland's territory.
If we look at the strength of the two sides in the last battle, there is certainly no problem with the orcs' arrangement, and there is even a lot of room left.
The combat power of three orc brigades is enough to deal with Harland's territory.
However, in three years, the strength of Harland's territory has doubled. According to Richard's assessment, a frontal field battle is enough to defeat three orc brigades.
Early the next morning, Richard called all his subordinates together, glanced at each person's face one by one, and then said: "The fighter plane has appeared. It's time to give the orcs a hard blow. Send the order to assemble the troops. Follow me and kick the orc's ass hard!"
Richard's voice was very strong and his attitude was very firm. Now that he had made a decision, even though some conservative officers liked to use the most defensive counterattack tactics. But his prestige was too high, and all the officers could only follow Richard's opinion.
The conservative officers in the territory are mainly Richard's uncle Soros. Although Soros had different opinions in his heart, the military commander made up his mind and he could only keep his opinions in mind.
At this time, the following cannot easily interfere with the commander's determination.
Soros has been in the military for many years and has rich experience, and he knows this very well.
"The orcs have the advantage of investigation. Many times the information we detect is deliberately discovered by the orcs. Is it too risky to launch an attack rashly? What if the orcs
lure me out of the castle and set up an ambush outside the military station?
We are a noble private company. Army, even if it has completed its mission by defending the territory, why should it take the initiative to provoke a decisive battle with the main force of the orcs? Once too many soldiers are lost, it will be difficult to replace them with veterans and officers with many years of experience. I wonder if Richard has considered this clearly?" Suo Ross was secretly thinking that he wanted to talk to Richard, but he was afraid of affecting his determination.
When leading an army in battle, the most taboo thing is that the command authority is not unified.
Although superiors can promote military democracy and let subordinates provide opinions, once the superiors make up their minds, subordinates must complete the task to the letter.
Soros hesitated for a while and decided to believe Richard.
Judging from the results of several battles, Richard felt that he was much better than him on the battlefield.
Since Richard believed the scout's judgment and felt that it was necessary to fight this battle, Soros could not hold back and kept his words of persuasion in his heart.
There is a third battalion in the military station, plus an auxiliary squadron to garrison it.
The orc camp was stationed in the north of the military station fort. This time the orc commander was very cautious and did not rush to send troops to attack the military station fort.
The terrain of the military station is very dangerous, and the tentative attack is of no use except increasing casualties.
Through harpy reconnaissance, the orcs have figured out that the castle defenders number over a thousand.
The trebuchets of the defenders of Harland Territory are very accurate, and the soldiers' archery skills are accurate and ruthless. They will also throw alchemy bombs at critical moments. Even if a thousand soldiers defend the city, three large groups of orcs are not sure of taking down the stronghold of the military station. .
The task given to them by the orc army is to contain the Harland Territory army, and they are not allowed to fight hard with the Harland Territory.
The reason why the orcs camped outside the military station fort was entirely to compete for geographical advantages. Outside the military station fort was a three-way intersection. If they guarded this three-way intersection, they would be able to guard the back roads of the east and west passages.
By noon, the First Brigade, the Second Brigade, the Fourth Brigade, the Warcraft Cavalry Brigade, the two headquarters reconnaissance squadrons, the Guard Squadron, and the Mage Squad had all gathered at Fort William, with a total number of about 3,600 people.
Fort William is thirty kilometers away from Fort Depot. If we speed up, and according to the quality of the troops in Harland Territory, they will be able to appear on the battlefield before evening.
After resting for an hour or two, you can launch a surprise attack late at night.
In famous battles in history, almost all famous generals mobilized their troops before the battle to boost morale and thereby obtain stronger combat effectiveness.
Zachary, the former commander of the Northern Army, was very good at mobilizing before war, and even William was a master in this area.
Before starting the war, Richard also had to conduct a propaganda and mobilization campaign.
"Soldiers, we are going to fight tonight. Many of you are veterans and have participated in many battles. But there are still many new recruits. Although they have been trained for three years, they do not have much war experience.
From the faces of many people, I can see tension, anxiety, and even fear and fear.
But let me tell you, we are northern Xinjiang people and live on this land. No one, no matter whether they are nobles or serfs, can refuse to fight.
If we fail, the orcs will attack the castle in the territory, and your parents and children will become prisoners of the orcs.
Many people in the territory have been captives of orcs, and there are even many soldiers who have also been captives of orcs. Will they tell you what those days were like? Our relatives will have the same fate as pigs and sheep, and will be slaughtered at any time and become food for orcs.
For the fate of our loved ones, we must overcome the fear of death, overcome our own psychological weaknesses, and fight to the death against the orcs.
Many recruits are still indentured slaves and have no freedom in life. They envy the veterans for their high military pay and good treatment.
I tell you today, you don’t need to envy these. As long as you can kill an orc today and achieve military exploits, the new recruits can also be freed in advance.
If you unfortunately die in battle, your family will be pardoned, the whole family will be freedmen, and they will also receive good pensions and subsidies. In war, blood and death are impossible to avoid, but please supervise each other. I, Richard Harland, will never abandon you. If I take a step back, please let the soldiers cut off my head.
I will not retreat, and none of you can take a step back. Whoever dares to retreat, regardless of seniority or official position, I will chop off his head. "
After mobilization, the soldiers had lunch and left Fort William with a small amount of dry food and headed towards the Fort.
Just walking a few kilometers out of the city, they found harpies conducting reconnaissance at high altitude from a distance.
Richard estimated Looking at the distance, he found that he was beyond the range of the enchanted bow and arrow, and he shook his head in annoyance.
He planned to launch a surprise attack, but he was unlucky and was already exposed just after leaving the city.
Since the surprise attack had failed, he could only fight with real swords and guns.
After the harpies detected the information, they immediately sent the news back to the orc camp.
The officer commanding the three orc brigades was an eighth-level wild boar named Duram.
Durham is the deputy commander of the Orc Legion, responsible for commanding five brigades of Orcs, and his status is equivalent to Richard's old rival Gunderson.
After receiving the intelligence detected by the harpies, Duram said in disbelief: "Are the human commanders stupid? Do they still want to launch a surprise attack?" In the
last orc invasion war, Northern Army Commander Zachary Through two wonderful night surprise attacks, they achieved a brilliant victory.
After receiving the information from the Harpy, the orcs immediately thought that Richard was going to repeat his old tricks and launched a surprise night attack.
"Pass my order, each squadron will send more sentries tonight to let the soldiers take turns to rest and prepare for human night attacks." In the evening,
Richard led the soldiers to the military station fort. He personally boarded the watchtower and observed At the orc camp, it was discovered that the orcs were prepared and digging trenches.
After dinner, Richard immediately assigned a combat mission to the First Reconnaissance Squadron.
"In the second half of the night, you work as a small team and fire rockets at the orc camp, making the noise louder. Your mission today is to harass the orc camp, consume the orc energy, and prevent the orcs from sleeping well. There will be no combat mission for you tomorrow. ."
In the second half of the night, the First Reconnaissance Squadron launched a massive attack on the orc camp.
Although Duram quickly saw through the intentions of the reconnaissance squadron, to be sure, he still kept the three squadrons awake all night to prevent the human soldiers from pretending to be real and launching a surprise attack in the middle of the night.
Early the next morning, Richard led 4,500 soldiers out of the military station and approached the orc camp.
Arriving at a distance of four to five hundred meters from the orc camp, Richard began to set up camp, build fortifications, and assemble a catapult.
The orcs have more than 6,000 troops and there are defenses to help. Richard is not willing to fight on the battlefield designed by the orcs and get bloody.
Setting up camp four to five hundred meters away from the orc camp is equivalent to pointing a sharp sword at the orc's throat.
If the orcs ignore it, Richard installs a trebuchet, which can use ballistic calculations to achieve a longer range and attack the orc camp.
The orcs' use of trebuchets is very dull and not accurate enough. Using trebuchets against Harland's territory is self-defeating.
If the orcs take the initiative to attack the camp, the battle to attack the stronghold will become a battle in formation.
Such a change will certainly be beneficial to Haaland's territory, which actively seeks war.
In the past three years, the Harland Magic Association has developed rapidly. There are now many magicians who can burn explosive runes. Before the war, there were already 1,200 alchemical bombs saved in the territory.
The alchemy bomb weighs only a few kilograms, and can be thrown five hundred meters away using a lightweight counterweight catapult.
As for throwing heavy stone bombs, the range of the trebuchet is only about two to three hundred meters.
At a distance of five hundred meters, the soldiers in Harland's territory had the initiative. Once the camp was repaired, the orcs would definitely suffer.
When he discovered that humans were building a camp outside the castle, Duram was confused. Although he was a wild boar, he was cautious in character and was not sensitive enough to the battlefield situation. The reason why he can command five orc brigades and become the deputy commander of the orc corps mainly depends on his high professional level.
Although an overly cautious character will not easily fall into the enemy's trap, it will be difficult to seize the initiative on the battlefield.
Seeing Richard repairing his camp, Dulam suppressed the opinions of the officers below and did not take the initiative to attack.
As a result, after the camp was built and the trebuchet was successfully assembled.
More than a dozen alchemy bombs were launched and thrown into the orc camp. In an instant, smoke billowed and several alchemy bombs hit the orc tent.
In the blink of an eye, the orcs killed or injured dozens of people.
The catapult continuously launched alchemy bombs with a very high hit rate, more than 95% of which hit the orc camp.
Such a high accuracy rate is because the magician has calculated the trajectory in advance.
Although Richard submitted the drawings of the counterweight trebuchet that year, he did not tell Nolan's engineers the method of calculating the ballistics.
Compared with the trebuchet drawings, the method of calculating ballistics is more critical. The first is to be proficient in the principle of leverage, and the second is to understand classical physics and calculate the gravitational acceleration of the Dawn Plane. Third, you also need to know the parabola calculation method, which uses a lot of knowledge in algebra, geometry, and calculus.
In Harland's territory, there are only four people who can calculate ballistics. Except for Richard, Sophia, and Wendy, only the very smart Butler can assume the task of calculating ballistics. Even the other two magicians in the territory, Anne and Heath, are not good at calculating ballistics due to insufficient accumulation of mathematical knowledge. with weights.
The trebuchet continued to launch, and after more than ten rounds, one hundred and twenty alchemical bombs were projected.
Because of their high accuracy, these one hundred and twenty alchemical bombs achieved very good results.
Duram counted the casualties and found that more than 190 orcs were dead and about 500 were injured.
Seeing that the human side was still projecting alchemical bombs, Duram couldn't let the orcs get beaten without fighting back.
If the situation continues, the morale of the orcs will become very low. It is possible that they would be defeated by humans without engaging in close combat with the Harland Territory.
In desperation, Duram could only organize his troops and take the initiative to attack the camp built by Richard, hoping to get close to the Harland territorial army and defeat the opponent with close combat.
I have something to do tonight so I can’t type. There is only one update left to post
(this chapter is over)