Chapter 265: The Jungle Encounter
broke through Burson Castle, and the situation of the three-provincial coalition forces greatly improved.
First of all, the problem of food shortage has been effectively alleviated. More than 2,000 tons of food were seized, leaving 300 tons for the captive population to eat on the road. The remaining food was enough to feed the coalition forces of the three provinces for 40 days. In addition, Baron Solawan died in battle, which severely damaged the fighting courage of the nobles on the central border of Stanik.
Secondly, the strategic situation of the three-province coalition has also improved greatly. After entering Stanik, the three-province coalition finally has a stable stronghold.
This intervention war is a civil war between the Grant Kingdom and the Grand Duchy of Stanik. Neither the Church of the Dawn nor the Royal Church will participate in the war.
If clergy do not participate in the war, there will be a shortage of medical personnel for battlefield rescue.
Fortunately, when the three-province coalition was formed, Richard brought some medical personnel from the Harland Territory, and the territorial mage group could provide treatment power, so this problem was not obvious in the three-province coalition.
Richard turned his head and asked the staff officer beside him: "Where are our casualties? Have they been counted?" "
Last night, we lost eighty-six officers and soldiers, and about two hundred were lightly or seriously injured."
Hearing the casualty figures , Richard said: "There were three hundred casualties at night and four hundred casualties during the day. In order to break through Burson Castle, we have already lost 700 soldiers. Although we have conquered the castle and secured the advance stronghold, the current situation of food shortage has also improved. Ease.
In the next battle, we must divide our forces. Bursen Castle must be defended and two thousand soldiers need to be left to garrison. Our offensive strength is only thirteen thousand. Compared with the coalition of nobles in central Stanik, there is still no There is a numerical advantage. We attack their defense, but our situation is still relatively bad.
Therefore, we cannot be proud just because we have won the battle. We will rest for a day at Burson Castle today and continue marching westward tomorrow to actively look for the main force of the noble coalition in central Stanik. , it is best to fight with them in the field."
After giving the order, Richard dispatched a squadron of soldiers to escort the prisoners back to Harland's territory.
Since the intervention war began, the coalition forces from the three provinces have arrested nearly 30,000 people, and the Harland Territory can swallow at least half of this population.
Early the next morning, Richard asked the coalition of nobles from Gascoigne Province to deploy 2,000 soldiers to garrison Burson Castle, and then led 13,000 soldiers to break camp and head west.
The magic hot air balloon rose into the sky, and the Warcraft Scout Cavalry spread out, walking in front of the main force.
The construction of scouts in the Harland Territory has far surpassed that of the Stanik border nobles.
The magic hot air balloon reconnaissance team is not only equipped with telescopes, but also can detect enemy situations at high altitudes. There are also elite archers in the hot air balloon, who are capable of fighting even if they encounter harpies. In addition, the magic hot air balloon is equipped with a high-level magic apprentice to control the magic flame.
A Magic Hot Air Balloon Reconnaissance Squadron with eight teams. Generally speaking, six teams perform reconnaissance missions and two teams are on duty.
In addition to the magic hot air balloon, the Griffin Cavalry team in Harland's territory already has four Griffin knights who can take off to fight, and the leader is Richard's cousin Audrey.
Compared with the magic hot air balloon, the Griffin Cavalry is more flexible and has a wider range of activities.
The Magic Hot Air Balloon also needs to rely on the direction of the wind to fly, but the Lion does not need this. The Lion's flexibility during flight is also better than the Magic Hot Air Balloon. If there are enough Lion Knights, the Magic Hot Air Balloon Scouts can be eliminated.
Flying in the sky on the griffon, Audrey could see every move of the enemy. Walking ten kilometers west from Bursen Castle, you will encounter a mountain range extending from north to south.
This mountain range is about 260 kilometers long and is called the Feiraman Mountains.
To the east of the mountains, the Grand Duchy of Stanek granted six baronies. These six baronies are Stanik's first line of defense against the Grant Kingdom.
If you go around the Feilaman Mountains, you need to walk for ten more days.
If we walk ten more days, the food road will be very long. If the enemy rushes down from this mountain range, it will be easy to cut off the food road of the coalition forces from the three provinces.
Unless Richard established five or six grain stations on the road and left one or two thousand soldiers at each station, he could protect the safety of the grain road.
But in this way, there are only a few thousand troops left to attack.
Through aerial reconnaissance, the Feilaman Mountains are not particularly high, ranging from a few hundred meters to a thousand meters above sea level.
There are five or six valleys in the mountains that can be passed through. One of them has the best traffic conditions and is regarded as the official road of the Grand Duchy of Stanik.
The length of this valley is about twenty kilometers. The mountains on both sides are not dangerous. The widest part of the valley is two to three kilometers and the narrowest part is several hundred meters.
This is a battleground for military strategists. The coalition of nobles on the Stanik border will of course set up camps and strongholds in the valley.
Imberson Castle fell too quickly, and before the defenders could react, scouts from the three-province coalition had already appeared.
There were less than two thousand soldiers in the camp. The commander of the garrison was Viscount York.
If a coalition formed by nobles does not have a high-prestige commander, it will generally be very difficult to command it.
In the central border area of Stanik, there is no big noble in front. Three viscounts and sixteen barons go their own way. Even in the face of external threats, it is difficult to unite the command.
First of all, it is particularly difficult to concentrate troops. The troops in the hands of small nobles are their lifeblood. You cannot require every hereditary noble to have an overall view.
In fact, most small nobles are selfish and rarely have the overall concept.
Because Burson Castle only held on for a few days, it did not buy Viscount Nero, the head coach of the three-provincial coalition forces, much time at all.
According to Viscount Nero's plan, the Stanik border nobles deployed a total of two lines of defense. The first line of defense is with Burson Castle as the core, Solawan as the commander, and the strength is mainly composed of six barons from the east of the Ferraman Mountains. , the number is three thousand.
Viscount York led two thousand soldiers to establish a second line of defense in the Feiraman Valley.
Viscount Nero continued to concentrate his troops, recharge his batteries and act as backup.
In recent days, Viscount York has participated in dozens of meetings and finally managed to gather two thousand soldiers, half of whom were soldiers from Viscount York. The camp was built just one day ago and was stationed in the middle of the valley.
The short time was not enough for the Viscount of York to strengthen his defenses.
Viscount York originally wanted to use Bourson Castle to drain the enemy's energy. In his expectation, the terrain of Burson Castle was dangerous, and the Baron Solawan who defended the city was powerful and experienced. If the enemy wants to capture Bursen Castle, it will inevitably cost a lot of casualties and delay it for a long time.
When the Grant Kingdom's army divisions were exhausted and Viscount Nero gathered his soldiers, he could cooperate with the Burson garrison inside and outside and defeat the enemy in one fell swoop.
Unexpectedly, the coalition forces of the three provinces relied on powerful magical power to capture Burson Castle in a night surprise attack.
Seeing the Warcraft scouts appearing near the camp, Viscount York suddenly felt desperate and pessimistic.
He knew in his heart that the strength of the defenders in Ferraman Valley was not as strong as that of Burson Castle. Since Burson Castle cannot be defended, he cannot hold on here for too long.
After discovering that the enemy had lion cavalry, the Viscount of York hurriedly sent soldiers to report the news to the rear, request support, and then ordered the soldiers to dig trenches and strengthen the camp, hoping to delay it for a few days.
After receiving the intelligence from the scouts, Richard made a prompt decision and ordered the soldiers to speed up the march, not giving the enemy too much time to prepare, and launching a critical battle before reinforcements arrived.
Among the coalition forces of the three provinces, the soldiers in the Haaland territory were the most elite and marched at full speed faster.
The soldiers were very fast. In order to capture the valley camp before reinforcements arrived, Richard ordered the soldiers from the Harland Territory to act as the forward, with the coalition forces from Lach Province as the middle army and the coalition forces from Gedda Province as the rear.
All units must travel lightly and must arrive at the battlefield tonight.
Richard and the coalition command will fight with the soldiers of Harland Territory.
In the afternoon, the soldiers from Harland Territory walked ten kilometers of flat roads and four kilometers of mountain roads after a morning of forced march, and appeared near the Feilaman Valley camp.
This time to form an intervention force, the Harland Territory deployed a reconnaissance cavalry brigade, a hot-air balloon squadron, a territorial mage regiment, the third squadron of Warcraft Cavalry, the second infantry brigade, and the sixth infantry brigade, with a total strength of approximately 4,000.
In the battle to capture Burson City, the Harland territorial army only had elite archers, and the territorial mage group participated in the battle, with minimal losses.
With the Harland Territory Army as the vanguard, four thousand elite soldiers descended from the sky and suddenly rushed to the vicinity of the camp. The defenders were immediately panicked and made a lot of noise.
At such a close distance, the defenders had no time to adjust their formation. Viscount York could only reluctantly organize a team and erect shields for defensive operations.
The arrows continued to fall, and they hit the camp so densely that the enemy was unable to lift his head.
Under the protection of the soldiers, the magicians in Harland's territory began to adjust their position and released spells to assist the soldiers in fighting.
Sophia and Wendy released several fireballs in succession, like battlefield forts. Several fireballs hit the enemy's shield array fiercely, exploding instantly and igniting blazing flames.
Although the soldiers hid behind their shields and mobilized their fighting energy to lay out a layer of defense, they were still unable to stop it. The blazing heat wave swept over and covered hundreds of soldiers within the magic range.
In an instant, the soldiers suffered heavy casualties, with more than dozens of soldiers killed and injured. Viscount York's shield formation also had several gaps, exposing its weaknesses.
Upon discovering the presence of a magician on the other side, Viscount York's expression changed, and he immediately gave the order without any further thought.
"Punk, you and I will lead separate teams to kill the enemy's magicians."
Although the shield array can defend against ordinary bows and arrows, it cannot withstand the bombardment of fireballs for too long. There are more than two mid-level magicians among the enemy. If left unchecked, there will be a big gap in the shield array after the indiscriminate bombardment. Without the protection of the shield array, our side will definitely be defeated by then.
Viscount York raised his sword and jumped out of the shield formation with Punk, another sixth-level warrior. Each led a small group of elite soldiers to kill Sophia and Wendy.
In just a minute or two, the two of them engaged the soldiers of Haaland Territory.
York is a seventh-level silver knight, and Punk is also a sixth-level warrior. The destructive power of the two men in close combat was extremely powerful. In the blink of an eye, seven or eight soldiers were killed or injured in Harland's territory, and a small gap appeared in the military formation.
Seeing this scene, the officers in Harland's territory took the initiative to take responsibility. Captain Jennings of the Sixth Battalion and Captain Lost of the Second Battalion led their own soldiers to stop the arrows of York and Punk.
Although Zhan Nings is young, he is already a fourth-level warrior, and there are several professional officers around him. Although his combat effectiveness is much worse than that of Punk, he has enough helpers around him. As soon as he takes action, the casualties of Punk's team will increase. In just a few breaths, there were only a few professional officers left around Punk.
Intermediate professionals like Jennings and Punk were as powerful and physical as monsters. They wielded heavy weapons that ordinary soldiers could not stop.
Seeing that Jennings managed to block Punk's blow, Richard and Soros unhooked their bows and released their bowstrings at the same time. At the same time, Sophia also fired a fireball at Punk.
In an instant, the fireball fell from Punk's head. Punk raised his arm shield and tried his best to activate his fighting spirit. A ray of fighting spirit burst out from the arm shield, forming a magic shield to protect himself inside.
The magic fireball exploded, and Punk, who was at the center of the explosion, endured the waves of fire. He desperately used his fighting spirit to resist the burning of the magic flame. In just ten seconds, more than half of his fighting spirit was consumed. .
When the last wave of fire passed, Punk endured the pain of the burning fire and was about to jump hard to get rid of Jennings's entanglement. As soon as he looked up, he found two arrows shooting at him fiercely.
These two arrows had a sharp whistling sound and their speed was extremely fast.
At the moment of death, Punk was so frightened that his hair almost stood on end. He had no time to think about how many enemies there were in the dark. Being on the battlefield, he responded to danger almost instinctively.
The first arrow came, and Punk couldn't avoid it. He roared, his hands burst out with fighting spirit again, and he raised his sword and hit the arrow at the critical moment.
This feather arrow uses a mid-level enchanted arrowhead. This arrowhead is made of an alloy made of blood steel and orichalcum. It is not only very hard, but also comes with powerful fighting spirit. In the entire Harland territory,
only Only warriors with an archery level of level four or above are equipped with this special arrow.
Although Punk's strength is great, he cannot break the arrow. The arrow and the sword collided violently and exploded.
The violent impact pushed Punk to the ground. The fighting spirit light on the armor flickered in vain for a few times before being completely extinguished.
Punk struggled to get up, but before he had time to stand still, another feather arrow was shot at him. This time, Punk was unable to stop him at all. The arrow hit Punk's head fiercely and penetrated the strong helmet.
Punk fell heavily to the ground and closed his eyes unwillingly.
(End of chapter)