Amidst the deafening roar, the ancient and solid walls of the Wild Stone Castle were crumbling, and the earth began to shake.

Accompanied by the roar of artillery, the cavalry holding golden fleur-de-lis high in the air surged forward amidst the smoke that blocked the sky, hammering the outer positions of the Hantu army over and over again.

The vast and vast wilderness was filled with the sound of horrifying and coercive iron hooves, like the dull thunder in the sky, echoing in the ears of every Hantu soldier with a frightened expression, causing them to huddle in the trench in panic, holding their rifles and rustling.

trembling.

This battle of attacking and defending the Wild Stone Castle has just begun.

After some planning and preparation, Claude Francois began to deploy the only two legions he had on hand, a force of 40,000, in the area of ​​the Deserted Stone Castle, preparing to use this fortress as the core, together with the surrounding hills, to form a huge

The three-sided "encirclement net" faced the Imperial Expeditionary Force, which had only one-half of its own but was an elite and powerful force.

In order to ensure "foolproofness", Claude Francois rarely listened to Carl Bain's suggestion. The 40,000-horse army relied on the terrain to focus on defenses on the communication line between Huangshi Castle and Iron Bell Castle; the number of constructions was huge, and

A group of fortresses that are all within range of each other and connected by communication trenches and bunkers.

In addition, taking advantage of the greater mobility of the Imperial Expeditionary Force, the west side of the communication line leading to the Summit Tower Fortress was handed over to the Empire, and only the two wings and the east side of the Wild Stone Castle were defended, sacrificing the width of the defense line for depth, to contain the Imperial cavalry and Guan Jue.

Artillery of the world.

All in all, this is a conservative and very "careful" defense mode - you can't win, but it can also allow the Imperial Expeditionary Force to smash their heads and bleed in front of the barren stone fort with "thousand layers of anti-armor" stacked up.

.

The only problem is that Claude still underestimated his opponent's maneuvering speed, or seriously overestimated the Hantu Legion's operational efficiency.

The 20,000-strong Imperial Expeditionary Force did not advance along the communication lines as a group at all as he imagined; instead, they divided the troops into multiple routes, allowing the troops to pass through the rugged Mount Eden Mountains in pieces, and then broke into pieces.

Launch a fierce attack from the south - the left flank of the Huangshi Fort position.

At the same time, the Hantu Army's "Desolate Stone Fort Defense Line" has only been completed two-thirds of the time. A large number of peripheral defense facilities are not in place at all. The various troops do not yet know their garrison positions, and the command headquarters is completely in chaos.

It's still the same old problem - Hantu does have an army of one hundred thousand, but they have never actually assembled this "one hundred thousand army" even once, and they have no experience in operating an army of such a size.

Even the Archduke Thun and Eden, who have the most "rich" combat experience, have more than 30,000 troops under their command, but most of them are "security forces", and most of the time they are only commanded by their direct subordinates.

, a guard of about 5,000 men - about the size of a reinforced infantry division in Clovis.

One-third of the troops, without any defensive facilities, without any preparation, and without even the time to dig trenches, faced the Imperial Expeditionary Force that suddenly appeared from the horizon on the flat and endless wilderness of the Wild Stone Castle. The battle was like a torrent.

Cuirassiers rolled down the hillside, and four-pound, six-pound and eight-pound solid bullets flew from the sky.

The result is naturally devastating.

In the face of the menacing Imperial Expeditionary Force, the frightened Hantu Army had no intention of fighting at all. After putting up very weak resistance, the battle line they formed began to fall one after another.

Claude Francois, who sensed that something was wrong, immediately issued a retreat order, shrinking the defeated troops into the fortress - for the lowly organized Hantu army, they could only function as a group.

Produce relatively high efficiency and combat effectiveness.

The only obstacle that prevents the Imperial Expeditionary Force from capturing the only supply point west of Eden is the walls of Blackstone Keep.

But even if all the outer defense lines collapsed, Hantu...or Claude Francois still did not lose any fighting spirit; because the Wild Stone Castle is an extremely strong, easy-to-defend and difficult-to-attack fortress - Ai, located in the west of Hantu

During the construction, a large number of city-building experts from the empire were hired to build this copper and iron wall that is comparable to the summit tower.

Duke Eden who built the Wild Stone Castle back then was to resist the threat from the rising Grand Duchy of Mist from the east; the empire, which also did not want to see a unified Hantu Kingdom, naturally tried its best to build this fortress and used a lot of it.

Later techniques and designs in the construction of imperial frontier forts.

If you want to chew it off, the difficulty is no less than chewing off the summit tower.

Moreover, this time there was no second Chenxi Mountain Range that the expeditionary force could climb over and detour behind enemy lines; the communication line leading to Tiezhong Fort was completely blocked by the defense line, and the only way to capture the fortress was to attack it head-on.

"Do these Han natives just like to be shy?"

Caspar Hered, holding a monocular, looked at the thorn flower flag shrouded in smoke in the distance, and couldn't help but complain.

Behind him and to the left, thousands of Imperial line infantry were forming a standard "Imperial-style phalanx", slowly advancing toward the battlefield amidst the cheerful and rhythmic drumbeats. Under the roar of the knights,

Amidst the sound, he put the rifle with a bayonet on his shoulder, as if it was a moving steel jungle.

On the temporary artillery position on the other side, the imperial gunners were still maintaining suppressive firepower on the fortress; the rising smoke pillars on the city wall proved their proud achievements with facts.

On the frontal battlefield that was full of craters, flames and was obviously turned into ruins by artillery before it was completed, the imperial cuirassiers and hussars who were rushing back and forth were still continuing their happy "hunting activities", destroying any attempt to organize

Anyone who defends or turns around to counterattack will be crushed with iron hoofs, sabers and carbines.

Under the cover of superior firepower, these proud knights counted the results of each other's battles, and even organized various competitions, enjoying the joy of galloping horses wantonly.

The empire, which is proud of its knights, has gradually realized since the rise of the Kingdom of Clovis that even well-equipped cuirassiers can hardly break through the defense line composed of line infantry. Therefore, its tactics have gradually shifted from breakthroughs to outflanking.

Put mobility first.

Therefore, only on the vast battlefield, these proud knights can relive the "glorious days of yesterday" that their grandfathers spoke of before their enemies could react.

"The commander of the chief cuirassier regiment reported that they have completely cleared all the Hantu troops who are still trying to resist on the position. If they continue to advance, they will reach the wall of the Wild Stone Castle."

Completely ignoring the complaints of the grumpy old man, Bernard, the deputy commander of the expeditionary force, said expressionlessly: "He requested that the cavalry troops be temporarily withdrawn to make room for the infantry - the reason is that the horses cannot climb the city wall."

"That young man who always knows how to cause trouble for me, does he think he is quite humorous?" Casper snorted coldly at his subordinates who deliberately showed off:

"Ask him for me, since he and his cuirassiers are so good at fighting, why don't they charge the defense line on the east side of Wild Stone Castle?!"

"It's very simple, because your humble and courteous chief cuirassier is a man who cherishes his life very much." Bernard also had a sarcastic smile on his face:

"If we want to attack and penetrate the enemy's densely packed eastern defense line, which has at least 20,000 troops, even if each of our brave cuirassiers is strapped with explosive bombs, they may not be able to do anything."

"And please allow me to remind you that the pre-made plan does not include a surprise attack on the road from Ayden to Iron Bell Castle and cutting off the supply line of the Hantu army."

"But it's important!" growled the grumpy Casper:

"No matter how powerful the Imperial Expeditionary Force is, we only have 20,000 people and they have hundreds of thousands - to deal with such a large number of enemies, cutting off supplies is the best way to defeat them quickly; my good Bernard, so

Don’t you understand the simple truth?”

"Yes, of course I understand."

Bernard nodded slightly and then changed the subject: "But our enemies also understand that even the stupid Hantu people can see this - so they have focused on guarding their supply lines to guard against this kind of

Condition."

"If the expeditionary force devotes all its resources to attacking this line of defense, it may really be able to conquer it...then what? The heavy casualties mean that we cannot attack the Deserted Stone Castle immediately, and even if we lose supplies, the inventory in the fortress is enough to defeat Claude F.

Francois insists that it will take at least ten days before he runs out of ammunition and food."

"Long before that, the Clovis people who smelled the smell of blood will immediately go north and cooperate with the fortress defenders to attack us from both sides; by then we will not even be able to retreat, because the only 'exit', the summit tower fortress, has been destroyed by our own hands

'Returned' to Hantu people."

"If I cut off their supply lines, I can kill them all in a month!"

The old man clenched his fists tightly, and under his slightly trembling beard was a bloody mouth covered in the mountains.

"Even if you don't do this, we can still defeat Hantu within a month... Moreover, I still think you have gone too far in the summit tower." Bernard frowned slightly and said:

"You said that what His Majesty wants is victory, and we only need to dedicate victory to His Majesty... The moment Hantu's "three hundred thousand army" is easily defeated by you, Claude Francois will realize

Realizing how weak and powerless I am, I don't need to kill them all."

"No need?!" The furious Casper suddenly raised his head and stared at his deputy.

But Bernard remained unmoved, his calm gaze facing the old man's bloodshot and dim eyes without saying a word.

The two people looked at each other in silence for a moment, but it was Caspar Hered who finally flinched.

The reason is also very simple. Although he is the commander-in-chief of the expeditionary force, as an old man who has been retired for many years and has a bad reputation, Caspar Herred has no connections in the imperial army.

Therefore, in addition to the senior generals personally appointed by the emperor, most of the mid-level officers and staff were recruited and selected by Bernard; if he wanted to command the 20,000-strong expeditionary force to regain its glory, Casper needed Bernard's help.

Fully cooperate.

What's more important is that when he climbed to the Summit Tower Fortress, Casper had already made his deputy lose face once; even according to the principle of reciprocity, he must respect the other party at least once.

"Okay, I'll listen to you this time."

The old man sighed helplessly and rolled his eyes in the direction of the Wild Stone Fortress: "I hope that old ass Claude Francois can be as you wish and be a smart man who can understand the situation clearly."

"Yes." Bernard also secretly breathed a sigh of relief. He was actually very nervous when dealing with a boss like this who could kill his whole family at every turn:

"I hope so!"

While the two were arguing, the imperial cavalry that had wiped out the defeated troops began to move from the front line to the two wings one after another, and a large number of imperial line infantry began to dominate the battlefield - along the road penetrated by artillery, towards the wall of the Wild Stone Castle

Advance.

Realizing that the enemy had begun to launch a general attack, the defenders of the Wild Stone Castle finally began to fight back against the Empire's non-stop artillery cover; but the sparse and inaccurate artillery shells, in addition to leaving a few craters on the already messy battlefield,

It didn't have any killing effect at all.

Finally... with a deafening roar, a protective wall of a fortification outside the fortress was penetrated by a ricochet. The defenders in the fortress did not even have time to escape, and were buried alive under the collapsed rubble.

Seizing the opportunity, the Imperial Expeditionary Force immediately launched a surprise attack and pounced on the small gap, less than two or three people wide; and the artillerymen, urged by the increasingly impatient Commander Casper, began to concentrate firepower near the gap.

Be sure to kill as much as possible the defenders who are swarming behind the breach.

"Boom——!!!!Boom——!!!!Boom——!!!!"

The dull explosion, accompanied by slight vibrations, penetrated the impregnable city wall and reached Claude Francois's ears.

At this moment, the "King of Hantu" who was in an extremely bad mood looked down at the map. His hands supporting his body pressed firmly on the feet of the long table. His concentrated expression seemed completely oblivious to the constant roar outside.

Don't care.

In this deathly silent hall, the knights of Hantu, who were originally very high-spirited, now looked gray and gray. Their previous infinite pride and pride could no longer be seen, and everyone's expressions looked extremely heavy.

The pride gained from finally defeating the Iser Elven Guards Corps, and the illusion that "the Imperial people are nothing more than that" due to the recapture of Carindia Port were shattered in front of the terrifying front of the Imperial Expeditionary Force.

Smashed to pieces.

All the previous ridicule of the Mist Army, the satire and sarcasm of the "cowardly" Carl Bain, at this moment, all turned into weapons to mock themselves, placing the bloody reality in front of them.

The fact is that without the walls of the Wild Stone Castle, their performance might not be much better than that of the "weak and incompetent" Mist Army when they encounter a surprise attack from the Imperial Expeditionary Force... It might even be worse.
Chapter completed!