Chapter 252 Battle of Swamp Basin
The pressure is increasing. The situation has developed to this point. Even if Pratt does not want to get a bloody head at the Depot, he must bite the bullet and attack the northern defense line of Harland's territory.
The mission given to the 59th Army by the Orc Front is not to contain the defenders of Harland Territory, but to require them to cooperate with the Eastern Army to eliminate the Northern Army.
This time the Orc Front's key offensive target was the Gedda Province. From three directions, three and a half legions, more than 100,000 troops, were mobilized to fight against Gedda Province.
Counting the Feiyan Legion, the army in Geda Province only has 50,000, and its strength is only half of that of the orcs. The strategic situation is also not good, because the orcs have a reconnaissance advantage, and the human legions have become deaf and blind. They do not know the distribution of enemy troops and can only passively defend.
The current situation is because the Grizzly Bear Legion underestimated the enemy and rushed in, and was surrounded by the main force of the orcs for reinforcements. Although the Lach Province has the largest number of troops, the situation is also the worst.
The situation in the province of Geda is slightly better, but it still faces a great disadvantage and is surrounded by 100,000 orcs.
Nowadays, the situation in three directions of Geda Province is relatively critical. There are no strong soldiers in the provincial mansion. It is like an egg. Once the hard shell is broken, it is like a beautiful woman who takes off her clothes and is ravaged by the orcs.
Although the Sodamian Army has gone north for reinforcements, the inland army's combat experience is not as good as that of the second-line armies such as Feiyan and Feiying, and can only undertake marginal defense tasks.
If you want to really change the situation of the war, you can only mobilize the elite soldiers under the great nobles or dispatch the Royal Guards Corps.
However, the development of the situation has not reached this point, and the Grant Kingdom does not require full mobilization.
On the contrary, Gascoigne Province was not the focus of the orc invasion this time. The defensive pressure was the weakest, and there were a few moderate victories. Already cooperated with Duke Edward to drive the main force of orcs away from the border.
With the situation like this, the defense pressure on Harland's territory was also increasing. The troops were stationed in a stalemate for several months, and the orcs clearly investigated the defenses of the military station.
The location of the military station is very critical, and it is a key point that the orcs must attack.
If we bypass the military station fort, the food route will be cut off by the defenders. However, Pratt felt that he had no chance of winning by storming a strong fortress like the Depot.
After careful consideration, Plett decided to find a way to mobilize the soldiers in Harland's territory from the strong castle. He still decided to adopt the classic old tactic of surrounding the point to provide reinforcements.
There are of course profound reasons why classic tactics remain popular.
Pratt analyzed the situation on the northern defense line of Harland's territory and found that Flower Castle was located between the two castles of Graveson and Fort Depot.
Rescue from the Northern and Southern armies can be obtained at any time. If few troops are mobilized, the Flowery Castle cannot be breached.
If more troops are mobilized, the garrison in the direction of Graveson will be reinforced. When the main army is mobilized to the Blossom Castle, the orcs will be attacked by the main force of Harland Territory, and will be in a situation of being attacked from both sides.
The defensive front of Harland Territory is relatively long, more than 100 kilometers from the swamp basin to Graveson Castle.
The main strongholds must be divided and stationed. On the contrary, the orc army's troops are more concentrated.
The terrain of Blossom Castle was not suitable for encirclement and reinforcements, so Plett decided to attack the swamp basin first. Through harpy reconnaissance, Plett had discovered that there was a Warcraft Cavalry brigade in the swamp basin.
Plett had a clear understanding of the combat effectiveness of the Warcraft Cavalry Brigade in the Human Kingdom. He decided to send three main brigades to attack the swamp basin, and then led seven main brigades, plus 8,000 goat-like auxiliary troops, to move the camp towards Moving west, blocking the only way for Richard to rescue.
Relying on the reconnaissance of the magic hot air balloon, the situation of the orc army's mobilization was also clearly detected by Richard.
Seeing Pratt dividing his troops, Richard suppressed the smile in his heart. As the situation developed, a fighter plane finally appeared.
Pratt had calculated everything but failed to realize that two mage towers were built in the swamp basin.
These two mage towers were built underground for special reasons.
One is a secret stronghold that the Venus family has been operating for a thousand years. Of course, the mage tower cannot be built high and big. It is completely an underground mage tower.
One is the Tower of Death, a mage tower built by the undead wizard. It is also a mage tower built underground. Although Richard added seven floors above the ground, it is still very different from the normal mage tower. It looks like a noble castle. generally.
The construction of the mage tower is secretive, and there are very few mage tower buildings in the Grant Kingdom, and the Harpies have never seen the mage tower. There were omissions in the intelligence investigation, and the orcs seriously underestimated the power of the swamp basin.
Sure enough, after three brigades of orcs appeared in the swamp basin, they discovered that there were two castles in the basin. The orc army had just surrounded the Lightning Tower. The Warcraft Cavalry brigade immediately came out from the Flame Tower Castle and pinned the orc army.
Thoros personally commanded the Warcraft Cavalry, preparing to attack the rear of the Orc army while the Orcs were attacking the city.
Upon seeing this, the orc commander did not choose to attack the Lightning Tower. Instead, he chose to divide his troops and mobilize a large group to attack the Flame Tower from behind, hoping to mobilize the Warcraft Cavalry to fight at the location preset by the orcs.
Although the Warcraft Cavalry Brigade is very powerful, it only has 600 people, and the Warcraft Cavalry only has 200 people.
The combined strength of the three orc brigades exceeds 6,000. With a strength of ten to one, fighting on the battlefield prepared by the orcs, the Warcraft Cavalry Brigade had no chance of winning.
Groups of orcs appeared around the Tower of Fire. The elite orcs were wearing iron armor and kept making various neighing sounds. Then, heavy footsteps stepped on the ground, approaching the city wall with murderous intent.
The dense mass of spears was like a towering forest, and the armor on his body made a rattling sound.
Groups of orcs appeared continuously from all around, quickly filling up the surrounding area of the castle. At first glance, they were all covered in black orcs, which made people's scalp numb.
The auxiliary soldiers such as sheep-headed men and deer-headed men who cooperated with the orcs also began to cut down trees and fill soil bags, as if they would launch an siege at any time.
The castle where the two mage towers are located is relatively small, with a total area of only a few hundred thousand square meters, about 200 acres, and the perimeter of the castle is about 1.5 kilometers.
The height of the city wall is also relatively low. Although it is a brick-clad city wall, it is only about six meters high.
It seems that its defensive capabilities are much weaker than those of ordinary baron castles.
Baron castles in the northern Xinjiang region are rarely less than twelve meters in height, and their area usually exceeds one square kilometer. Otherwise, it would be impossible to carry out the order of strengthening the walls and clearing the fields.
The orcs prepared to attack the Tower of Flame, but the Warcraft Cavalry remained unmoved and had no intention of mobilizing rescue.
Seeing this situation, the orc commander had no choice but to issue an order to siege the city.
The commander-in-chief stationed at the Tower of Flame is Sophia. She is accompanied by four or five magicians and a dozen wizard apprentices. In addition, the second squadron of guards is responsible for guarding the Tower of Flame and protecting Sophia's safety. There are also three hundred auxiliary soldiers in the castle, responsible for operating the trebuchet.
The trebuchet operators in Haaland's territory all have shooting watches in their hands. There are many people in the Tower of Flame who can calculate trigonometric formulas and ballistic parabolas.
The ten trebuchets hit very accurately, and the two hundred kilograms of stone bullets could hit the orc army formation almost every time. In the short distance of two to three hundred meters, they were hit by dozens of stone bullets. Just as they approached the city wall, the orc casualties were close to 200. Even three snake-like people were killed by stone bullets.
After finally crossing this road of death, the auxiliary soldiers immediately withdrew the city wall.
Without encountering any resistance, the orc soldiers had just climbed up the city wall. They shouted excitedly, opened the city gate and prepared to advance towards the center of the castle. Next was their time to plunder.
Seeing the orcs entering the magic range, the energy room of the Tower of Fire bloomed with a dazzling magical light, and instantly released ten large-scale fire attribute magic flame storms continuously.
Fire Storm is a six-ring group magic with very powerful lethality, especially for clearing out miscellaneous soldiers.
Ten six-ring magic spells each hit the place where the orcs gathered. In an instant, more than three hundred orcs died, and more than a thousand orcs were burned by the flames.
This sudden blow stunned the orc brigade for a moment.
Before the orcs could wake up from their fear, Sophia had already led the guard squadron to launch a counterattack against the orcs.
The magicians released control spells such as Grease Spell and Spider Web Spell one after another. The soldiers of the guard squadron immediately drew their bows and arrows and shot the still ignorant orcs to death.
In just a quarter of an hour, the guard squadron and the mage group killed more than 200 orcs.
After several strikes, nearly 700 soldiers of the orc brigade were killed, and almost all of the remaining soldiers were injured. Such heavy casualties immediately defeated the orcs' will to resist.
At this time, the fear of death was overwhelming. The orcs quickly withdrew from the castle and were hit by trebuchets again.
A large group of orcs entered a spell trap and barely caused much damage to the enemy. Almost half of them were killed. Many of the remaining people were severely burned. This group was almost completely wiped out.
I saw Sophia leading the guard squadron and fighting out of the Flame Castle together with the auxiliary soldiers, chasing the orcs and defeating them. Wendy from the Lightning Tower made a prompt decision and unleashed a series of lightning spells on the orcs besieging the city.
The Lightning Tower uses the legendary magic core as energy. Although the total amount of energy is not as good as that of the Flame Tower, there is a legendary level magic equipment, the Thunder Staff, in the tower.
Relying on the ability of the thunder staff, releasing thunder spells can not only reduce the consumption of magic energy, but also increase the power by 30%.
With the blessing of the lightning staff, the lightning tower's lethality is even greater than that of the flame tower.
The magic of Chain Lightning has a farther range than Fire Storm. Wendy estimated the distance and saw that the orc camp was within the magic attack range of the mage tower.
Immediately holding the thunder staff, he unleashed ten consecutive lightning bolts on the orc army.
Huge thunder exploded in the orc army formation, and lightning struck the orc soldiers continuously. In an instant, a large number of the orc army was killed or injured.
Ten streaks of lightning had just been released, and before the orcs could breathe a sigh of relief, a lot of stone bullets were shot from above the camp.
This sudden scene shattered the orc's outlook.
In the orcs' inherent impression, the range of a counterweighted trebuchet is only two hundred to three hundred meters. They never expected that the Harland Territory trebuchet could throw stones five hundred meters away.
It is very simple to say. It is nothing more than reducing the weight of the stone bullets, increasing the weight of the counterweight, and adding the height advantage on the city wall. After complex calculations, a ten kilogram stone bullet can be launched five or six hundred meters away.
Although the power of a ten kilogram stone bullet is weak, ordinary orcs will still die if they are hit, and the defenses in the camp will also be smashed.
Thoros led the Warcraft Cavalry Brigade and stared at the orcs under his nose. His eyes were shining, and he held the bow and arrow tightly with five fingers. A strong sense of excitement suddenly appeared in his body.
"Warcraft Cavalry Brigade, attack with me. Let us use the swords in our hands to kill the orcs and gain merit." The six hundred
soldiers of the Warcraft Cavalry Brigade drew their bowstrings and approached the orc camp to shoot arrows at the orcs.
Attacked by the Lightning Tower, the orcs had already suffered hundreds of casualties, and their original rhythm had been disrupted.
No one knew how many spells the magic tower on the opposite side could release. The orcs in the camp were in a commotion, packing their bags and planning to retreat.
Without enough time to organize an effective defense, the Warcraft Cavalry Brigade rushed to the vicinity of the orc camp and began shooting arrows on their horses.
Generally speaking, cavalry bows are softer than infantry bows, and their range is not as good as that of infantry bows. Cavalry and infantry are asking for trouble when shooting against each other.
But the Warcraft Cavalry Brigade is different. The officers and key veterans are all professionals, and the ordinary soldiers are also advanced warrior students. Their strength far exceeds that of ordinary soldiers, and the cavalry bows they use are at least three-stone bows. The enchanted bow in Thoros's hand is more powerful than ten stones. Even if it is not ten times stronger than an ordinary person, it cannot draw the bowstring.
For soldiers who have been in the army for many years, their most proficient skill is often archery.
When the two armies fought, the bows and crossbows took the lead.
After soldiers join the army, the most important skill all year round is to practice archery. For ordinary serfs who have never been exposed to bows and arrows, it takes three years to upgrade their archery skills to the second level, and eight to ten years to upgrade to the third level.
To upgrade your archery skills to the fourth level, you not only need to practice hard, but you also need to be very talented in archery and have a special intuition.
The soldiers of the Warcraft Cavalry Brigade have been in the army for at least three years. Many are fifth-year soldiers, eight-year soldiers, and even some ten-year soldiers. Some officers have more than ten years of service.
There are eight people who have reached the fourth level of archery, and more than a hundred people who have reached the third level.
This group of archers were gathered into one unit, and their lethality was evident.
The Warcraft Cavalry Brigade did not go straight to the orc camp, but simply circled around the orc camp and fired five or six rounds of feather arrows, killing more than 500 orcs in the surprise attack.
It was equivalent to another series of lightning strikes on the orc army.
The orcs finally reorganized their ranks, and the orcs who were good at archery also organized themselves to shoot at the warcraft cavalry. Some powerful orcs used slings to throw stones at the warcraft cavalry.
The Warcraft Cavalry is a very expensive unit, and Thoros will certainly not waste it by shooting against the Orcs. He turned his horse's head and led the Warcraft cavalry out of the bow and arrow range, waiting for the next opportunity to attack.
Seeing that the orcs had no intention of withdrawing, Thoros detached 200 auxiliary soldiers to assist the soldiers of Fire Castle in hunting down the orcs' retreating troops.
(End of chapter)