Volume Six, Chapter 18, Painting the Ground as a Prison
The small mercenary group was the biggest winner during the War of the Gods. Before the Battle of Xilin Island, the small mercenary group had an official establishment of over 600 soldiers. The war lasted for five years. While the empires lost their troops and large areas of the country fell, the small mercenary group
As a joint-stock joint venture, the total strength of each battalion has exceeded the 20,000 mark, and it has several extraordinary units that would make the card-playing knights of the regular army of the empire jealous.
For example, the prairie elf archers and forest elf archers who joined the small mercenary group around the fifth year of the magic calendar; another example is the mountain dwarf knight detachment and mountain hammer knights who joined the small mercenary group in the sixth year of the magic calendar.
In the 7th year of the Magical Calendar, after the Forest Dwarf Kingdom's "One Hundred Thousand Dwarfs and One Hundred Thousand Soldiers Recruitment Order" was issued, forest dwarves serving in various mercenary organizations and regular armies in the Eminor continent set off a frenzy of retirement. These dwarf warriors carried cartwheels on their backs.
The Axes gathered at Broken Ice Port to prepare to return to the Ice and Snow Continent. At this moment, the sea route from the Ice and Snow Continent to the Eminor Continent was cut off by the Pirate King family. Therefore, more than 2,000 forest dwarf warriors turned their allegiance to the dwarf kingdom.
His Royal Highness Prince Horns, one of the successors in line.
——"King of Kings; Furious Dwarf King"
Chapter 18: Drawing an Earth as a Prison
Da Qingshan's face was unusually calm, without any hesitation, and he nodded immediately: "Well, don't worry. If the strong men and women are allocated to one-third of the southern front, the 20,000 to 30,000 regular troops in General Ray Barton's hands can hold it for at least 90 days.
, if the Pirate King’s Legion joins the war, it is conservatively estimated to defend for 60 days. You have to be careful, Fanos reinforcements may appear again on the west coast of the mainland.”
Everyone in the meeting hall was a little dizzy. Horns and Daqingshan were singing in harmony, as if they could really conquer Scambrai in 60 days. Isn't this just a dream?
The northern theater is now surrounded by enemies. Even if Chi Aotian's expeditionary force resolves the pressure from the east for the northern theater, the total number of regular troops in the two theaters of Sangganhe and Scambrai is at the same level as the existing regular troops in the northern theater, and may be more.
.
What about the Pirate Skeleton Army? The lowest estimate is 10,000 people. And it also sits on the Sanggan River. Even if all the combat power is clenched into a fist, it may not be able to defeat any of the troops. Now that the troops are divided into three groups, how can it be conquered?
What about Scambrai? The person sitting in Scambrai is Marshal Dahino, the number one military master of the Western Legion of Fanos. There is also the Holy Dragon Knight Renault.
Your Excellency Daqingshan has always been very prudent in his military use, why are you so reckless today?
The berserker is worthy of being the super humanoid loudspeaker of the small mercenary group. The chief officer of the berserker and berserk knight battalions returned to the camp and immediately conveyed the spirit of the meeting to all the berserkers. Just an hour later, His Highness Horns issued a military order and personally
The news that he led an army of 300,000 armored troops to conquer Scambrai City within 45 days has spread to every corner of Moada City. I believe that it will soon sweep through all the intelligence systems in the mainland like a tide.
Soldiers are valuable and quick.
Early the next morning, Daqingshan led his subordinate ministries to start the campaign.
On the plain on the north bank of the Sanggan River, there is a continental highway in the east-west direction, the Fourfold Highway. Now this highway has been fully occupied by General Ray Barton in the previous stage of the war. The direction of this highway is not too direct for the current war.
Influence; there are two continental highways in the north-south direction, namely the Meng (Bombay) Lion (Lion Heart City) continental highway and the Shi (Scambore) Tong (Tongyunguan) continental highway (see the Eminol continental map for details)
The two mainland highways run all the way from the north and northeast, converge at the Sanggan River Bridge, and then extend in both directions east and south.
Before the appearance of the Pirate King Family, the Northern War Zone had completely suppressed General Rebaton on the banks of the Sanggan River. At that time, it was very easy to protect these two continental highways - they had already intersected.
At this point, difficulty is no longer a concept at all.
General Rebaton's troops advanced more than 300 miles north in one breath. Therefore, within the jurisdiction of the northern theater, the shortest straight line distance between the two highways was more than 30 miles apart.
To fully defend the thirty-mile area, the most optimistic estimate would require 30,000 troops.
What surprised the Duke of Lantian was that Daqingshan didn't seem to be worried at all. Moreover, not long after leaving Moada City, Daqingshan slowed down his march. According to him, we have to wait for the strong people and their women to fight the future war.
Mainly rely on their strength.
Several senior officers of the empire were almost furious at the words of the Holy Dragon Knight! What are they waiting for Minzhuang and the civilian women to do? Could it be that... the small mercenary group is ready to let Minzhuang go to war? There is no way that your Excellency Da Qingshan will
Are you learning from His Excellency Chi Aotian?!
However, before leaving Moada City, Daqingshan first borrowed five dragon knights from Horns for a few days. There were originally six. General Long went to Zhanlan as the head of the envoy appointed by His Majesty Hongshi.
Island. Daqingshan scattered all five dragon knights. The task was simple: along the Sanggan River, use your power to harass all the enemy's cities.
In Lan Tian's eyes, the real role these dragon knights can play is just to cause harassment! According to the deployment ratio of each military region in the empire, there are at least 30 fantasy beast knights under the jurisdiction of the Sanggan River War Zone. And ten fantasy beast knights
A beast knight can draw a draw with a dragon knight. If General Rebaton is ruthless and gathers all the beast knights to form a small ambush, he might be able to kill one or two lone dragon knights.
As his deputy, the Grand Duke of Lantian solemnly expressed his concerns to the commander, who was 20 years younger than him.
"There won't be too many things." Da Qingshan smiled generously, as if he was 20 years older than the Grand Duke of Lantian: "Thank you very much for the reminder. I have already told them, just use the Dragon Breath Ball in the air.
harass the enemy's city. I read the information in the Sanggan River war zone and found that there are only six knights of flying phantom beasts such as the mad vulture. On this open plain of the Sanggan River, if the dragon knights wanted to escape, it would not be too difficult.
It’s strenuous.”
After pausing for a moment, Da Qingshan explained a few words: "Your worries before were indeed correct. If you just defend blindly, you will definitely not be able to bear it. So I want to use harassment to make the enemy exhausted, thus forcing General Rebaton to be unable to concentrate his troops."
Conduct a strategic offensive."
"So you also know that you can't guard it?" Grand Duke Lantian didn't say anything, but nodded with a wry smile: "Using the Dragon Knight to harass is indeed a way. But... this is just a borrowing! Mr. Horns has already said
It is very clear that these dragon knights must all converge on Scambrai in 10 days. Could it be that...after that, the mad eagle swordsman battalion will be relied on to complete the task of harassing? A fantasy beast knight can defeat at least five or more mad beasts.
Eagle Swordsman."
Da Qingshan laughed silently: "Let's take another look, we will always find a way to do it."
Earl Rebaton is now even more depressed than the Grand Duke of Lantian. He has just withdrawn the main force from the front line to rest, and the chief officers in the northern theater do not know what happened. They actually sent five dragon knights to harass them in the air.
The most impressive one is a wind-type dragon knight. He flew back and forth along the Sanggan River from west to east twice in one day. Whenever he sees the city and the fleet, he will enthusiastically use the Dragon Breath Ball to express his condolences.
What made Count Rebaton even more furious was that the wind-type dragon turned out to be a bald-tailed dragon!
Originally, a few ordinary dragon's breath balls falling from an altitude of thousands of meters would not cause much harm to a city - at such a high distance, the dragon's breath balls of dragon instinct are all flames, and when they fall,
It has almost cooled down during the process.
However, being harassed day and night every day made all the defenders exhausted.
What's even more troublesome is that even the most powerful crossbows cannot hit giant dragons that are more than a thousand meters away. That is to say, the cities in the Sanggan River War Zone have no effective means of preventing this kind of high-altitude harassment.
The earl made a special trip to visit Grand Duke Catalina, the deputy commander of the Pirate Skeleton Legion, hoping that the Pirate Skeleton Legion could lend a warm helping hand.
The red-haired Grand Duke shrugged his shoulders slightly, indicating that he was helpless - sea dragons and water dragons are not real dragons, but also a kind of sub-dragon beast. They can control the wind and rain in the sea, but once they leave the water, they cannot compete with the giant dragons. What's more,
, sea dragons and water dragons can only fly up to tens of meters high.
As a last resort, Earl Rebaton, as expected by the Grand Duke of Lantian, sent out light cavalry overnight, summoned all the fantasy beast knights from each army, and built an ambush circle in Hanyang City on the north bank of the Sanggan River - a total of thirty-six
According to the different attributes of their respective fantasy beasts, the knights of fantasy beasts lurked within a radius of 10 miles.
The lackey general was determined that as long as there was another dragon knight, even two dragon knights came at the same time, he would definitely suffer a huge loss in Hanyang City this time! Even if he could not kill the dragon knight in one fell swoop, thirty-six knights' spears would come before and after him.
A flanking attack can at least severely damage the enemy's mounted dragon!
This idea is indeed a good idea. But... what Earl Rebaton couldn't tolerate was that the dragon knights who wanted to come three times a day actually didn't come once for three consecutive days! The few fantasy beast knights who were arranged to show off on the city wall were pitiful.
In the cold spring weather, you can bask in the sun during the day and the stars at night, but you can't see the legendary dragon knight who comes to cause trouble every day.
The earl was so depressed that he wanted to get a group of people to stand on the wall of Hanyang City and wave his hands to the sky: "Come on, come on, beat me, come on and harass me!"
In short, in those days, the Earl's eyes were filled with the desire to be beaten severely.
No wonder the earl is so depressed. It is not an easy task to gather the Phantom Beast Knights. As we all know, whether it is a mercenary organization or the imperial army, the Phantom Beast Knights are the backbone of them, and they are at least mid-level officers and cadres.
.This time, the phantom beast knights were gathered together like blood. The earl really made a "blood" plan. He knew that if all the phantom beast knights were suddenly taken away, the various units below would still be in chaos.
After waiting for four consecutive days in Hanyang City, there was no sign of the dragon knight. General Ray Barton was worried about the loss. The sooner the fantasy beast knight returned to the army, the better. However, he was also worried that if the fantasy beast knight dispersed, what if...
What should I do if those five damn dragon knights pop up out of nowhere and cause trouble every day? Then gather together the fantasy beast knights again?
In the end, the lackey general made up his mind. It was only a concentrated meeting anyway, so it would be better to wait for two more days. Many times, when the war is at its most critical, the competition is often about the patience of the chief officers on both sides. Who can keep calm and win?
The goddess will finally lift up her skirt to whomever.
General Rebaton did not expect that on the eighth day, he would be woken up by someone pushing him under the quilt. When he woke up, he thought the dragon knight was here again, and he was so excited that he almost jumped up to hug and deliver the message.
Man, it turns out... I got the wrong person.
What woke the lackey general from his sleep was the light cavalry coming from the fortress on the mainland highway. The knights' original words at that time were as follows: "Sir, General. We...we encountered the enemy's peasant army!"
The Peasant Army is indeed a Peasant Army! When spring turned to summer in the eighth year of the Magic Calendar, Daqingshan and Horns successively commanded their own Peasant Army to make their debut.
Before withdrawing the main army to the Sanggan River, in order to prevent the northern theater from suddenly attacking southward, General Rebaton built a fortress group next to the two continental highways. The fortress groups were composed of six fortresses in an equilateral hexagon.
, the distance between each fortress is 200 meters, and six more fortress groups were built to connect the two mainland highways. These fortresses were built in accordance with the wartime regulations of the Imperial Military Department. They are all four-story pure granite buildings with high
It is 12 meters tall and can accommodate 400 soldiers, and is equipped with bed crossbows, pedal crossbows, heavy crossbows, catapults and other heavy defensive weapons.
The biggest feature of the quincunx-shaped fortress group is that there are no blind spots for defense, and any fortress that is attacked can be supported by various powerful crossbows from at least two fortresses. Between the fortress groups are several dug trenches, each trench
At least six meters wide.
According to the assessment of senior military officers in the Sanggan River Theater, for such a complete comprehensive defense system, the enemy would need to invest at least 20,000 people and suffer more than 6,000 casualties to achieve a full breakthrough.
The enemy discovered by the fortress group on the night of March 23rd was obviously not the number of 20,000 people! That night, almost instantly, a fire dragon with a length of dozens of miles suddenly appeared in the north of the Sanggan River fortress group.
There were people standing under the fire dragon.
The defenders of Sanggan River were very nervous. They were working in the dark and couldn't tell how many enemies there were. They also didn't know what siege equipment the enemies had prepared. What's more terrible is that most of the defenders' officers were acting chief officers -
- Six of the military officers responsible for the eight fortress groups in charge of defense are Phantom Beast Knights, and now they have all been urgently transferred to the rear by the General. It is said that it is a military exercise.
The acting chief officers all had the same idea in mind: no fault is nothing but meritorious deeds. The eight fortress groups fired fire crossbows to the due north all night long to prevent the enemy from attacking overnight.
As a result, at dawn the next day, the two fortification officers and six acting fortification officers were stunned when they saw what they saw in front of them!
It only took one night. On the north side of the fortress, more than ten trenches were dug. Except for the two mainland highways that had not been dug, the other places that could be seen were all trenches of various sizes.
All the trenches are six meters wide and four meters deep. They have been dug to the water surface. The soil turned up by digging the trenches is piled on the north side of the trenches. These trenches are not straight lines, each one is like an earthworm. There are twists and turns.
There are no rules at all. Between the trenches, there are pits of various sizes, one after another. The largest pit is more than 10 meters in diameter, and the smallest is half a meter.
Moreover, just near this trench, there are tens of thousands of civilians who are continuing to dig holes in full swing, not digging to the south, but to the north.
What are these guys in the Northern War Zone going to do? The officers and soldiers in the Sanggan River War Zone looked at everything that happened in front of them with big eyes and small eyes. This... It seems that there is nothing similar about trenches and pits in the relevant regulations of the Imperial Military Department.
statement.
When the sun set the next afternoon, the total number of trenches and pits had doubled again, and all the trenches had been dug.
That night, two groups of civilians on the north side of the fortress changed hands and dug continuously all night. The distance between the southernmost trench and the northernmost trench had exceeded 500 meters. If it were not for the constant patrol of troops from the northern theater, the fortress would have been
Commanders really want to see what these guys are going to do? Could it be that... a gold mine was discovered here? This is in line with the small mercenary group's usual idea of making war fortune. Some people are already very irresponsible.
I started to make full guesses.
The Grand Duke of Lantian has been living in a haze in the past few days. Groups of people have begun to gather. Daqingshan is also very busy, but it seems that he is busy in other places. He hides in the house alone from morning to night every day.
One ten thousandth of the Sanggan River military map has long and short curves drawn on it. A military chief actually draws curves every day? The Grand Duke of Lantian thought to himself that he might as well draw it himself, as it would definitely be more beautiful.
Da Qingshan occasionally comes out to hold meetings, and there are constant meetings and small meetings. The only purpose of the meetings is to send all the grassroots cadres of the small mercenary group to manage Minzhuang and purchase materials such as shovels, brooms, pickaxes, and marching shovels.
Also on the night of March 23rd in the spring, when the Grand Duke of Lantian watched more than 60,000 people swarming up with lanterns and torches and began to carry out civil engineering projects on the plain on the north bank of the Sanggan River, he and other senior officers still did not
Understand what Lord Daqingshan is trying to do?
Late at night, Daqingshan took part in the excavation ceremony with a large number of senior military officers and mid-level and senior cadres. He also set an example and worked with the migrant workers at the construction site all night, sweating profusely.
"Your Excellency, what are we...what are we going to do?" Grand Duke Lantian had never carried a shovel. He had been held down by Da Qingshan for half a night. He was so tired that his whole body ached. He finally couldn't help but say
He expressed his doubts.
Da Qingshan stood up straight and rubbed his waist vigorously, blinking his eyes with a very innocent look on his face: "Didn't you see it? Isn't this digging a hole?"
"Didn't I see that they were digging a hole? It seems that I have two eyes! Although I am so tired from you that my eyes are filled with stars." The Grand Duke groaned in his heart, but what he said was something else.
"Then... Your Excellency, there are already more than 60,000 minzhuang, and there will still be this number of minzhuang in a few days. If we have to dig a hole, how big of a hole will we have to dig?"
Oh, Da Qingshan knew that he had been misunderstood. He pulled the shovel handle and explained very seriously: "Of course we don't want to dig one hole. We need to dig many holes, big and small."
"Is this guy deliberately pretending to be confused?" The Grand Duke no longer knew how to express his feelings: "Sir, even if we have to build obstacles, wouldn't it be enough to have a few trenches and a few big pits? Why dig so many pits?
During the ancient wars between the kingdoms, they only dug a Chu River and a Han pit."
"Oh..." Da Qingshan finally understood what Grand Duke Lantian was worried about: "Of course it's not enough, I have to dig a lot of holes..." Late at night, Holy Dragon Knight Da Qingshan waved his hand into the distance: "In front of Amy
Soon he told me something very good: We will devote all our time and efforts to the unremitting digging campaign. Only now do I feel that these words he said are quite philosophical."
"Alas..." The Duke let out a long sigh. He was about to cry without tears. When did this guy Daqingshan become invulnerable? Dig a hole, dig a hole, you know how to dig a hole. The Duke of Lantian said secretly from another angle.
My own dissatisfaction: "I really didn't expect Master Amy to have said such philosophical words. I admire you, I admire you. However, Sir, you said that after the war, the two of us would come back to Sanggan River, and we saw that it was full of large and small pits.
And the long and short trenches, will you feel guilty?"
"Of course I won't feel guilty!" Da Qingshan dug very hard, looked at the Duke in surprise, and spat twice into the palm of his hand. After not doing farm work for a long time, the dragon knight's palms had blisters, and he was so cruel
After digging a few shovels, he explained: "Why did I prepare so many shovels and brooms? The only purpose is to fill holes. So, don't worry, I will fill every hole I dig."