Chapter 222: The Pursuit Battle
The power used by the Orc Empire to invade the Grant Kingdom was less than one tenth.
According to public information, the Orc Empire has a total of 160 regular legions, with a total strength of approximately 5 million.
However, if it is fully mobilized, the orcs can mobilize tens of millions of soldiers, but the combat effectiveness of the mobilized soldiers is very low and can only be used to fight a dozen city defense battles.
When attacking, the mobilization of soldiers only consumes food and gives the enemy heads. When the orcs go south, there is basically no need for full-scale mobilization and mobilization of soldiers to fight.
Due to the constraints of other forces, the power used by the orcs in the Grant Kingdom is actually fixed, and they can draw up to six to ten legions from other regions.
If too many legions are drawn from other regions, the situation will be unbalanced.
Since the last Orc invasion war, four legions were drawn from other regions. As a result, the Kingdom of Grant withstood the pressure. The commander of the Northern Army, Zachary, withstood the pressure and annihilated an Orc legion.
After the war, the Grant Kingdom increased its military strength in the northern region, organized and trained three Atonement Legions, and re-maintained the balance.
An important reason why orcs invade frequently is that kobolds, snakes, goats, and wild boars mature much faster than humans.
The orc tribe has many races. Kobolds, goats, and wild boars all have very strong fertility. Kobolds can reach adulthood at the age of seven or eight, and snakes can reach adulthood at the age of ten. Even werewolves, lions, and harpies are basically adults before the age of twelve.
In order to avoid population explosion and civil unrest.
Every time the orcs invade, they are actually consuming excess garbage population.
This time the orcs invaded, the number of troops was actually slightly smaller than the last time.
The war has reached this point. The orcs have lost 40,000 troops and gained a population of 100,000. The strategic goal has been achieved and they have plans to withdraw their troops.
Since June, the orcs have been shrinking, and their forces have gradually concentrated at the southern foot of the Eagle Mountain Range. By late July, half of the orc army had retreated into the middle of the Eagle Mountain Range.
King Roger was very angry because he failed to save the captured population of Gascoigne Province. By mid-July, his patience finally reached its limit.
King Roger issued an edict, removing Stein from his post as commander of the Northern Army and appointing him as commander of the Gabria Army.
He was directly transferred from the commander of the main army to the commander of the local provincial army, and his military rank was lowered from lieutenant general to major general. Although he did not lose the battle, Stein had almost no future.
As the new commander of the Northern Army, King Roger chose to promote him on the spot. Rab, the first deputy commander and captain of the Warcraft Cavalry Brigade, was promoted to the commander of the army.
William's old commander Teng Wei also took advantage of the situation and was promoted from the position of logistics minister to the first deputy army commander and captain of the Warcraft Cavalry.
After waiting for many years, Tarak finally got rid of Tengwei and took the position of logistics minister.
Although William's official title has not changed, his influence within the Northern Army has increased.
Rab and Tengwei were both his old comrades-in-arms and had served in the Northern Army for more than twenty years.
This time King Roger completely let go of the Northern Army and decided to break the ceiling and appoint capable officers on the frontier to take charge of the situation.
In fact, this time Stein directed the battle without making any big mistakes. However, as the commander of the main army, he had no overall concept and did not dare to take risks. He did not make correct decisions during the battle. His command errors were a key factor in the heavy losses in the Gascoigne Province.
The Roger Kingdom has just come to power and does not have many qualified senior officials, so it can only choose to promote local officers, hoping to use local officers to stabilize the situation.
If Stein used his troops too cautiously, the commander of the Arab Army used his troops too recklessly and fiercely.
After taking office, Rab abandoned his main force in the first battle and led the Northern Legion cavalry to hit the orc transportation line, annihilating two orc brigades and rescuing 18,000 serfs.
Logistics was unstable, and the orcs could only continue to mobilize troops to protect the logistics transportation lines.
As a result, five brigades had just been transferred back to the front. Teng Wei commanded the infantry of the Northern Army and immediately launched a critical battle.
In this battle, the orcs lost their strength advantage and were forced to fight an upright positional battle with the Northern Army. The camp was broken by heavy trebuchets.
As a result, the orcs were defeated and lost another five thousand soldiers.
In two consecutive battles, Rab and Tengwei seemed to have a tacit understanding and cooperated very well. The two of them joined forces and not only defeated the orcs, but also lost 8,000 soldiers. They also rescued a group of captured people and brought the situation back a bit.
The orcs on the front line suffered a loss and could only draw troops from the rear.
The five brigades of orcs who were confronting Richard in the Platos Mountains dispatched two brigades to bypass the Platos Mountains and pass through the Eagle Mountains from the Earl of Martins to support the main force of the orcs near Harden Castle.
The main force of orcs came with reinforcements and slowly retreated towards the Earl of Martins.
This passage is still in the hands of the orcs, and it seems that the orcs have plans to retreat completely.
Within a few months, most of the more than 500 wounded soldiers in Harland's territory have been demobilized, and the shortage of soldiers has long been made up.
During this period of time, Richard did not forget to learn magic and mastered the five-ring magic field.
After learning this spell, Richard's defense ability has been greatly enhanced. According to the magic power in his body, after opening the magic field, even a high-level magician would have a hard time breaking up Richard's defensive force field.
In addition to learning magic, hundreds of snake scale armors have been added to Harland's territory recently.
This is not just the work of Richard alone. Many magic apprentices in the territory have completed the pre-processing of the snake scale armor. Butler and Anne's enchantment skills have also been upgraded to the first level, and they can enchant the snake scale armor.
Another necromancer, Heath, had been studying enchantment technology before. During his time in the Tower of Death, he had been responsible for part of the enchantment tasks.
With the help of everyone, although he made the enchanted armor in his spare time during the war, he completed a year's task in five months.
More than a hundred pieces of enchanted armor were distributed by Richard to the third, fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh squadrons.
With one hundred more enchanted armors, the new recruits have gained war experience, and all wounded soldiers have been demobilized, the strength of the Harland Territory army has become stronger than half a year ago.
The orcs mobilized their troops from the direction of Platos, so they could only demolish the east wall to make up for the west wall.
As soon as the number of orcs in the direction of Platos decreased, Richard was immediately discovered.
Richard was very decisive in using his troops and trusted his battlefield instincts. Regardless of whether there were traps or not, he immediately led his soldiers to fight the orcs in the north of Platos Castle.
Six months ago, Richard was able to lead the soldiers of Harland Territory to defeat three large groups of orcs. Half a year later, the Haaland Territory Army could still do this in an upright positional battle.
Although the orc army has more professionals, better physical fitness, and greater strength.
However, there is a generational difference in the weapons and equipment between the orc army and the elite human soldiers. The long-range attack strength of human soldiers far exceeds that of the orcs. In addition, the soldiers in the Harland territory are equipped with a large number of alchemical bombs, and the accuracy of using trebuchets is also better than that of the orcs.
Even in terms of physical fitness, Harland's territory also has a large number of elite soldiers. The number of professionals in the army under his command exceeds more than 200, which is barely comparable to the orcs.
Moreover, Richard also has Warcraft Cavalry under his command, and the elite soldiers are equipped with enchanted crossbows, enchanted armor, and enchanted long swords.
Richard repeated his old trick again, bringing a trebuchet to launch alchemical bombs, forcing the main force of the orcs to leave the camp and engage in positional warfare with the soldiers from the Harland territory.
Although the orcs also have trebuchets, they can't calculate the trajectory, so using the trebuchet is quite dull. Although he reacted this time, he also threw several kilograms of stones and fired at the Haaland territorial army.
However, stone bullets of several kilograms are weak and far inferior to alchemy bombs.
After shooting for a while, the orc officer had no choice but to give up this bad strategy and was forced to leave the camp and assemble to fight a positional battle with Richard.
The strength of the two sides is very close, but the weapons and equipment are quite different.
After entering the range of the archers, the soldiers of Harland Territory stopped and drew their bows and arrows, shooting down a large number of orcs. The orcs could not shoot at the human soldiers, so they could only speed up their march and rush over to engage in hand-to-hand combat with the human army.
In just two hundred meters of road, more than a thousand orcs fell, and the cries were very tragic.
After finally rushing over, the magicians in Harland's territory used powerful spells one after another, and threw out the grease spell and cobweb spell for free. Various spells limited the movement speed of the orcs, followed by another round of strong bows and crossbows, and another batch of orcs were killed or wounded.
Even if they managed to rush forward, the soldiers of Harland Territory were wearing iron armor, enchanted armor, and a large amount of magical healing power, so they were not inferior in hand-to-hand combat.
The orcs have a team of snake-born professional soldiers, and Richard also organized a warcraft cavalry.
The Warcraft Cavalry specializes in attacking the Snakemen. The Orcs were restrained at every turn, and soon more than half of them were killed or injured.
Although the orcs were more capable of withstanding casualties, more than half of the casualties still broke the will of the orcs.
In terms of strength, the three brigades of orc troops are no match for the soldiers of Harland Territory.
Head-to-head battles always rely on strength.
If the strength is not as good as that of humans, the failure of the orcs is inevitable.
The positional battle only lasted for an hour and a half, and the three groups of orcs had already collapsed.
Seeing that the orcs had dispersed, Richard ordered the Warcraft Cavalry to pursue them for several miles, driving all the orcs into the primeval forest before stopping the pursuit.
In fact, during positional warfare, only about a thousand orcs were killed, and most of them were shot to death by bows and arrows. The number of orcs killed or wounded in hand-to-hand combat was smaller. When they broke up, almost all the wounded soldiers had their heads cut off, and a large number of prisoners were taken.
Many of the orcs who managed to escape into the forest were injured and would face countless difficulties such as blood loss, hunger, and infection. Less than half of them could return safely.
After cleaning the battlefield and listening to the staff report, Richard learned that more than 3,000 orcs were beheaded in this battle, 1,400 orcs were captured, and only about 1,600 orcs escaped.
Although this battle lost its suddenness, the soldiers in Harland's territory only suffered 600 casualties and 226 casualties, thus achieving a great victory.
After defeating the orc army in the north of Platos Castle, Richard immediately followed the Platos Valley and attacked the orc transportation lines.
This battle was even more unexpected. The orcs were attacked during the march and were completely wiped out by the soldiers of Harland Territory without organizing any effective resistance.
After cleaning the battlefield, they completely wiped out a brigade of orcs with less than 200 casualties. More importantly, they rescued 13,000 human prisoners from the fortress in the rear.
Counting the 6,000 people rescued at the beginning of the war, the Haaland Territory has not spent gold coins this year, and the population has increased by about 20,000.
Richard took the initiative and seized the opportunity to fight two battles in a row.
The results of these two battles were very brilliant. Three orc brigades were severely damaged and one orc brigade was annihilated.
The heads of the orc professionals were sent to the Noble Council, and the prisoners were handed over to the Royal Capital Mage Association. In addition to the military exploits as rewards for winning battles, twelve great achievements were made at once.
This year, when the orcs invaded, Richard undoubtedly became a man of the hour in the Grant Kingdom. He launched four battles in a row, winning four battles and four victories. In cooperation with Viscount Luomen, he severely damaged six orc brigades and annihilated three orc brigades.
Almost single-handedly, he changed the situation of the Grant Kingdom war.
This year, a quarter of the losses of the orc army came from Richard, a quarter came from the Northern Army, and a quarter came from the Duke of Jonathan. Only the remaining hundreds of thousands of troops won the last quarter. Results.
After four victories, Richard had accumulated twenty-six great achievements, and he could almost be granted a viscounty title.
In the past ten years, in terms of military exploits, only a few heroes such as Zachary, Martins, Roger, and Jonathan ranked ahead of Richard.
In this orc invasion, it was not only Richard who made great contributions, but also William's contribution.
Although William led the army, it is impossible to count all the military exploits made by him. But after several battles, William also accumulated three great merits, plus some battle merits accumulated by Sophia.
The achievements made by the Harland family in this battle are enough to be replaced by a viscounty.
After making great achievements, Richard immediately returned to Platos Castle, away from the main battlefield, for fear of becoming the target of the orcs' attacks.
As time entered August, the orcs gradually returned to the northern part of the Eagle Mountains.
This battle was an anticlimax for the orcs. Although they achieved considerable results before the war began, they suffered losses at the end.
In the half-year-long war, the orcs lost nearly 60,000 soldiers, captured 100,000 human slaves, and grabbed some gold coins and supplies.
Since Richard was sixteen years old, he has experienced four orc invasion wars. In nine years, more than 300,000 humans were kidnapped by orcs in the Grant Kingdom.
There are three central provinces and three duchies in the northern part of the Grant Kingdom, with a combined population of more than 10 million and approximately 3 million household registrations.
One in ten families in northern Xinjiang has relatives robbed by orcs. For nobles and poor people close to the border, the probability will be much greater, almost half.
(End of chapter)