They were well fed, warmly dressed, and had received quasi-modern military training beforehand. Some of the reserve soldiers had even seen blood during the bandit suppression campaign, which gave Dick's soldiers a spirit of toughness.
Some active-minded little lords couldn't help but secretly look at Dick, thinking that although Earl Best looked small, his thighs were really thick, and he must feel safe hugging him!
Ignoring these small lords who were like fence-sitters, Dick, at the invitation of Count Hoffman, brought his retainers into the castle and quickly convened a military meeting.
After receiving support from the eastern lords, the coalition forces had reached 15,000 troops. Hoffman was still conducting further mobilization and expected to recruit another 8,000 to 10,000. However, the training level of these temporary recruits was lower than before, and it could even be said that they had not received any training at all. The Hoffman family did not have enough equipment to arm them, so they could only ask the people to prepare their own weapons.
These conscripts are there to make up the numbers, and can only serve as atmosphere and cheerleaders in a favorable battle. If they are really sent to fight head-on against the ferocious orcs, one can imagine what will happen to them!
"At present, most of the lords in the north are still scattered. Many lords do not realize the seriousness of the situation at all. They only want to preserve their own strength and are unwilling to respond to the call. Some are simply cowards and shame on the nobles! They abandoned their own territories and ran away!"
At the military meeting, Count Hoffmann, who was under too much pressure, complained as if he was venting.
Except for Dick's Laguge, several other great lords ranked high in the north were all watching, especially those near the central mountains. They seemed to be in a wait-and-see attitude, as if they had determined that this orc invasion would not reach their doorsteps, and were therefore happy to see these territories further north suffer, so that they could send people to take over afterwards and thus gain actual control over these lands.
Hoffman knew exactly what those people were thinking, because if the fire hadn't burned him now, he would have chosen to do the same.
His complaints did resonate with many of the lords present, and to a certain extent consolidated their unity, but they were of little help in the immediate task, so Dick raised his hand to signal for the floor to speak.
"Count Hoffmann, I have some questions."
"Please go ahead, and you can just call me Peter."
"I want to ask, since we have formed a coalition, has the command system of this coalition been established? We can't just line up and fight on our own, right?"
Dick's straightforward question attracted the attention of the lords present, because it sounded as if Dick wanted to compete with Count Hoffman for command.
And in fact, that’s what Dick meant!
At this critical juncture, all the red tape and political wrangling are unnecessary. They must race against time to complete the war deployment, and the command system is the nerves of the army, assisting the commander, the brain, to control the body to fight.
So everything else is bullshit, let’s first choose the person in charge. Who will hold the dragon head stick?
Several eastern lords who came with Dick naturally chose to support Dick because they were closer to Laguge. Later, when some escaped bandits came to their territory and caused chaos, it was Dick who sent troops across the border to suppress them. Therefore, they had seen the strength of Dick's men.
Seeing this, several lords from the Midwest were about to voice their support for Count Hoffman, but they saw that the other party took the initiative to give up his position and nominated Dick to be the commander-in-chief of the coalition forces.
"Everyone! The current situation is extremely urgent. Lord Best has experience fighting against orcs and has achieved remarkable victories. We should really listen to him."
Hoffman's speech, which took the overall situation into consideration, made Dick look at him with a new respect.
Hoffman's confidence in Dick was not only because he had suffered losses at the hands of the other party, but also because he knew that Dick had a top expert who could kill Hamradi, the king of assassins, so he was very confident.
Dick, who successfully obtained the command, clapped his hands. Joel, who served as the secretary, immediately pushed in a display board from outside the conference room. On it was a map of Count Hoffman's territory. Judging from the terrain and various annotations, the accuracy was even higher than the map used by the Hoffman family themselves.
Upon seeing this, Peter Hoffman couldn't help but twitch his mouth twice. He wondered to himself why you have such a high-precision map in your hand. What the hell are you going to do? He didn't even dare to imagine it!
Ignoring the unnatural look on Hoffman's face, Dick pointed at the map and began to deploy.
First of all, Dick affirmed the original strategy. Relying on Nie He for defense is indeed the best way at present.
However, although the Nie River is the largest freshwater river in the north, with a wide river channel and abundant water, it is still not comparable to the fjord. As the temperature continues to drop, the river surface has been frozen. In another month, the ice will be thick enough for horses to run, and it will be no different from flat land.
In fact, many lords present also knew this, but what they thought was that as long as they could hold out for a month, reinforcements from the center of the empire would surely arrive.
As long as the heavenly soldiers launch an attack, everything will be fine!
At this time, a servant of the Hoffman family came in and whispered something in the ear of the master. Peter's expression suddenly became a little subtle, and there was shock and confusion in his eyes when he looked at Dick.
"Lord Best, your cavalry..."
"It's my order. We need more time."
At Dick's request, Hoffman fully mobilized his own territory and also urgently summoned the people from the surrounding territories.
Dick planned to spend at least three days to create a "miracle" on the east bank of the Nie River.
But they learned from the refugees who kept fleeing from the west that the orc army was attacking them with great force and would reach the west coast within two days at the earliest, so the coalition forces did not have enough time.
At this time, on the west bank of the Nie River, a vanguard of orcs had approached to less than a hundred kilometers away and was taking a short rest in the woods.
The number of people in this army is not large, with only more than 400 beast soldiers. There are also some small groups of scouts scattered out on the periphery, with seven or eight people in a team, like outstretched tentacles.
The commander of this vanguard force was none other than the half-orc Neg, who had given Dick thousands of beast heads in the fjord. From being the commander of a 20,000-man corps to being a small vanguard officer commanding a few hundred men, Neg's situation had changed dramatically.
When the Beast King's punishment came down, Neg actually had the idea of "passing the buck" in his mind. After all, the suggestion to advance early was suggested by his shaman teacher, so the other party was also responsible.
But after only a moment's hesitation, Neg chose to take on everything alone.
After being demoted, Neg did not fall into depression, but continued to serve the Orcs diligently and responsibly, leading his vanguard troops to charge in the front.
Since entering the human territory, he and his troops have been invincible. The empire's border legions have been cowardly in their fortresses, and the private armies under the lords are no match for the orcs.
After days of fighting, Neg could no longer remember how many enemies he had defeated. The steel knife that the Beast King had given him was now blunt, forcing him to pick up the enemy's weapons and use them.
The result is obvious. Human weapons are really awesome! The sword of a junior officer is sharper than his imperial sword.
But the human race, who uses such sophisticated weapons, is so vulnerable.
No! It seems that not all humans are like this.
Just as Neg was lost in thought and looked like he was in a daze, a burst of noise came from behind them. It was another team of beast riders. There were not many of them, only about sixty or seventy people, but the ones leading them were of noble status as soon as they saw the metal armor on them.
When the other party came closer, Neg couldn't help but frown.
He recognized everyone, but none of them were the ones he wanted to see.
124. Raid
That team of orc cavalry went straight to the vanguard. The young men in the lead came straight to Neg but did not dismount. Instead, they looked down at Neg, who was sitting with his back against a big tree to rest. The smiles on their faces revealed their undisguised gloating.
"Hey, Commander Neg, you seem quite relaxed."
"There's a saying among the human race that goes 'no official position brings freedom', so of course he's free now!"
Ignoring the other party's ridicule, Neg just wiped his weapon silently.
In terms of blood relationship, these young orcs and Neg are half-brothers, but the relationship between them can hardly be described as "brotherly love and respect".
Beast King Ramon has many children, so many that even he himself doesn't know the exact number. His sons are born soldiers, and his daughters are married to the tribal leaders who surrender to him. The marriage can also improve the racial genes of the orcs. Ramon also deliberately guides these children to compete with each other. Only those who are strong and smart can get his favor.
Among these orc princes, Neg was once one of the most favored children.
Not only was he skilled in martial arts, he also had a smart mind that was highly praised by the First Shaman. This made Ramon directly appoint Neg as the leader of the Eastern Army when he decided to launch a major invasion to the south, and also made the orc princes who regarded him as a competitor jealous to the point of going crazy.
However, accidents happen, and no one could have imagined that Negg, who had led the army in such glory, would be defeated in the first battle. He was ambushed while crossing the fjord, and lost thousands of soldiers and many of his good brothers who had originally supported him. In the end, Ramon was furious and demoted him to a small vanguard.
This incident made many people very happy. After all, their brother's failure made them happier than their own success.
This group of orcs was led by Rag, and the opponent was the centurion of the beast cavalry of the central army, who had always disliked Rag. His troops happened to be fighting nearby, and when he heard from his subordinates that Neg's vanguard troops were right next to them, he immediately called his good brothers and came all the way to laugh at Neg.
Seeing that Neg always had a sullen face and was unwilling to pay attention to them, Rag became more and more excited and showed off to Neg together with his brothers the various "trophies" hanging on their bodies.
In order to demonstrate their bravery, Orc warriors would usually find a representative item from the prey or enemy they killed and hang it on themselves.
Neg would naturally do the same, but he liked to take away the weapons used by the enemy, while those more "traditional" guys tended to cut "parts" from the corpses, such as eyeballs, fingers and other bloody things, and make them into necklaces and bracelets to wear.
The brothers around Rag are generally traditional, and each of them makes themselves look like devils from hell. Fortunately, it is winter now, otherwise the stench on their bodies would make people dizzy!
As for Rag, he is the ultimate pervert!
His "trophy" was extremely unique; it was actually a living human girl!
As a half-orc, Rag's appearance is obviously more similar to that of a human. According to the aesthetic standards of the orcs, a skinny and hairless shrimp like him is definitely an ugly man, but in the eyes of humans, he is a wild and handsome guy.
Judging from her clothes, the girl should be from a wealthy human family, and she might even be a noble lady. The little girl sat on the pack animal behind Rag, her eyes full of fear for the man-eating beasts around her, but her little hands tightly grasped Rag's belt, her body almost pressed against him, as if she wanted to seek a sense of security from Rag.
Realizing that the girl was afraid, Rag stretched out his furry paws, stroked the girl's hands that were holding his belt twice, and comforted her in the human language not to be afraid.
When Neg saw this scene, he couldn't help but show obvious disgust on his face.
Rag has a very bad hobby, which is to protect the human female he likes during the killing and give her careful and gentle care.
When the other party completely trusts him, or even has developed love for him, Rag will then reveal his true colors. He will brutally kill and eat the other party, just to appreciate the most extreme despair.
This guy's perversion is so unbearable that many orcs can't stand it!
Neg, feeling disgusted, stood up and was about to leave, but what Rag said made him stop unconsciously.
"Neg, have you heard? The human race has formed a coalition army, and the lord who defeated you in the fjord has also joined and become the commander of the coalition army. As long as we continue to march, we will soon run into them. Do you want revenge, Naeg?"
"Where did you get this information?"
Neg knew that Rag was very close to the black-robed aides around the Beast King, and those guys who didn't show their faces could always get a lot of important intelligence from the human race.
"Don't worry about that. I came here to tell you in person that I will kill the human lord who defeated you and prove to my father that I am stronger than you! In addition, I will..."
Rag was making an impassioned declaration of war, but he was interrupted by a sharp whistle halfway through. Then everyone present could feel the ground beneath their feet shaking violently, as if a group of terrifying beasts were rushing towards them.
Neg was the first to realize that this was an enemy attack, but before he could open his mouth to remind his orc soldiers to prepare for battle, a large number of black balls suddenly fell from the treetops above their heads, and exploded when they were about to hit the ground, making an extremely piercing bang and strong light, which instantly made many of the orcs around them become deaf and blind, and they covered their heads with their hands as the buzzing sound continued in their ears and wailed loudly.
Neg was also affected, but the severity was slightly less severe because he closed his eyes in time, so he was only deaf but not blind, and he could still see with his eyes, but the double vision was extremely severe.
In a trance, he seemed to see a figure falling from the sky and kidnapping the human girl behind Rag with lightning speed, and the movement was so fast that it seemed like flying.
Before he could take a closer look at where the other party was flying to, he saw a large number of human cavalry running towards him from the east of the forest.
Unlike the noble private armies that they had easily defeated before, these cavalrymen were obviously more elite. There might be only two or three hundred of them, but their momentum was overwhelming and oppressive. Neg didn't understand why the other side gave him such a strong sense of oppression.
These cavalrymen were very fast and arrived almost instantly, while the orcs were still in the chaos caused by the stun bombs and could not organize an effective defense at all.
The cavalry that dared to launch a frontal attack on the orcs was none other than Dick's cavalry. The leader was Black and White Gun Dai, who was ordered to lead the elite troops to harass the vanguard of the orc army, to delay the enemy's advance as much as possible, and to buy time for the Niehe defense line.
In addition to the black and white guns, Xia and Ayane also acted as scouts. The flash bombs just now were their masterpieces. The two of them had space rings given by Dick, which were filled with various explosives made by Lily.
The coordination in this wave was very tacit. The cavalry team's forward was like a hot knife cutting butter, and directly killed the orcs.
As heroic spirits, Black and White Spear both have the skill to increase the attack of their teammates, and the increase can be accumulated, which significantly improves the overall strength of the cavalry team.
Those cavalrymen thought that as long as they followed their two beautiful captains, they could charge with great force, and the orcs would not be able to stop them!
As for the orcs' vanguard troops, although this was not the largest counterattack they had encountered since their invasion of human territory, it was definitely the sharpest.
At this time, because Nag did not hang any messy trophies on himself, he was not conspicuous in the disorganized army. On the contrary, Rag and others who came to visit were targeted by the human cavalry at the first time because their traditional orc-style outfits were too eye-catching.
Black Spear immediately picked out Rag, thinking he was the commander of the orc army, and rushed straight towards him. He originally wanted to stab him through, but then he thought that this guy might know some information and could be captured and handed over to Tia for interrogation, so he changed his stab to a sweep, using the lance as a big stick and hitting the guy hard.
"Come down you!"
Hei Qiangdai did hold back this time, but Rag still flew high, broke away from the pack animal, turned three and a half times in the air, and hit the other two brothers behind him.
The other orcs wanted to come to the rescue, but none of them could stand up to Black Spear Dai, and they were killed by White Spear Dai who came to support them and fled in all directions.
"We've got it, retreat quickly!"
"I'm not satisfied yet. I can take care of this group of orcs by myself!"
"But our soldiers are not Heroic Spirits. The Master specifically told us to stop while we are ahead!"
At Bai Qiangdai's reminder, Hei Qiangdai looked around and saw that the ordinary cavalrymen who followed them to charge had indeed begun to suffer casualties. These cavalrymen they trained were indeed courageous, but they were flesh and blood after all. Hei Qiangdai quite liked these little brothers who called her "big sister".
"It's almost time, retreat!"
As Hei Qiangdai said this, he turned his horse around and picked up the unconscious Rag from the ground. The nearby bodyguards immediately blew the retreat horn, and the cavalrymen who had already fought three times in the enemy's midst quickly withdrew from the battle, leaving the stunned enemy behind and rode away.
Neg narrowly escaped the disaster and immediately gathered the remaining soldiers. After counting the number of people, he found that in less than ten minutes, the enemy's surprise attack had killed or injured nearly half of his men, and Rag's gang were also killed. Rag himself was even abducted by the enemy.
Several of Rag's younger brothers were in tears and were still frightened.
Because they have been invading human territory so smoothly so far, they think that human beings are nothing special and the weak ones are like lambs to be slaughtered.
It was not until they encountered today's completely different group of enemies that they woke up from their dream.
125. Desperate Ice City
For two consecutive days, more lords and mercenaries came to join the coalition forces, and the total force exceeded 20,000. In addition, more than 100,000 civilians participated in building the defense line. The entire east bank of the Nie River was in full swing.
Most of these civilians were subjects of Count Hoffman's territory. Dick observed for two days and, judging from the degree of support the subjects showed for Peter, he might not be a good neighbor, always trying to put his not-so-clean hands into other people's homes, but at least he was a good lord and his people trusted him very much.
In order to respond to this trust, Hoffman did not retreat into the castle like some other lords and ignore the lives of the people in the territory. He wanted to protect as many people as possible!
Peter Hoffman's original plan was to build a defense zone based on the terrain so that he could hold on and wait for the heavenly troops from the center of the empire to come to the rescue.
The Hoffmann family's castle is located at a river bend on the east bank of the Nie River. It has a unique geographical location. The wide Nie River is both a water source and a moat, so it is very easy to defend and difficult to attack to build a city here.
But the problem now is that the Hoffman family castle has limited space and can only accommodate up to 30,000 people. However, Count Hoffman has more than 100,000 people, plus the imperial citizens who have come from other places to seek refuge, the population gathered here is about to exceed 300,000!
In order to protect these people, the coalition planned to build a defense wall of more than 10,000 meters. The western section was along the east bank of the Nie River, which was the main defense direction, so it had to be built first. The coalition could rely on the defense wall to prevent the orcs from crossing the river. The eastern section was mainly to prevent the enemy from attacking from behind, and it was behind the defense wall.
