"That being said, we are really having trouble preparing our supplies!"
Ruby Eye spread her hands, indicating that their original reserves of various materials were sufficient, but no one expected that the war would suddenly start, and on such a large scale. Once the war machine is launched, it will be a gold-eating beast. All supplies must be given priority to the troops fighting on the front line. As long as the defense line can be held there, it can ensure that the war will not spread to Laguge.
But the problem now is that Laguge's family has only been saving for a year and was not very wealthy to begin with, and now they can hardly hold on.
But just when they were at a loss, Suixiang suddenly ran in from outside and spoke to everyone in the office breathlessly.
"Oh, there are so many cars... Go and see!"
139. They can experience the same loss over and over again
On the front line, after suffering several heavy losses in succession, the orcs who were sweeping the legion finally came to their senses and started to unite again.
The nominal commander of the mopping-up corps was called Barro, a huge fat man nicknamed "Meat Mountain". After he led his warriors to capture a castle of a human lord, he took his own cats and fished there until it was dark, without paying any attention to other troops.
Until Ramon's messenger found him with a very strong message.
"Go command the army, or I'll kill you!"
The messenger vividly conveyed to Barlow the sounds of birds and flowers uttered by Lord Beast King, without missing a word. The fat on the Meat Mountain was so frightened that it couldn't help but tremble along.
So Barlow didn't dare to continue fishing. He hurriedly sent his men to contact the tribes that were scattered and moving freely outside, and asked them to gather at his location.
The entire assembly process took a full six days, and it was only then that Barlow was shocked to discover that his mopping-up corps had lost more than 10,000 men during his time, including two captains whose status was second only to his own. The reason for all this was that the human race had begun to fight back!
"Why don't these damned humans just accept death?"
After gathering his army again, Barro planned to get back at the front. He still had nearly 20,000 orc warriors, and his spies reported that the human race had built a large city by the river, where hundreds of thousands of people had gathered. Barro immediately ordered the entire army to advance to the location of the city. He wanted to capture the city himself and chop all the human race inside into minced meat!
Soon, the news of the approaching orc army reached the coalition camp. Dick, who had just finished resting and was about to set out again to fight guerrilla warfare, immediately called a halt to the action.
The total strength of the coalition forces currently exceeds 40,000. Although most of them are conscripts with low training and armament levels, if they have strong cities to defend, these temporarily armed farmers can at least serve as "filling in the gaps".
Two days later, a huge army of orcs appeared on the west bank of the Nie River. Barro looked at the human city on the other side with a cruel sneer, as if he had seen the fear and despair on the faces of those weak humans when he rushed into the city and slaughtered them.
Adhering to the classic tactics that the orcs have used repeatedly since ancient times, Barlow immediately ordered his 20,000 troops to attack and rush directly to the other side.
They didn't even prepare a ladder, but planned to climb the wall with their bare hands!
With the orcs' physique, they are capable of climbing up the eight-meter-high wall with their claws, but the prerequisite is that the defenders on the wall are wooden men who cannot move and can only watch them climb up.
In fact, before the orcs arrived at the west coast, their whereabouts had been discovered by the spies of the human race and reported to the top leaders of the coalition. Therefore, when the orc army launched the attack, the coalition was also on high alert. As soon as the charging orcs entered the range of long-range weapons, they were hit head-on.
First came the catapults and heavy crossbows, followed by longbowmen and magicians, and finally the crossbows were aimed directly at the enemy within 200 meters. The human army was still using the same old equipment over and over again, but it was good in quantity and could be used to unilaterally harvest the orcs.
More than half a month ago, a 2,000-man beastman army charged in this way and was eventually annihilated under the coalition's city wall. More than half a month later, Barlow did it again in the same way, except that he deployed more troops, ten times the 2,000!
Facing the rain of arrows fired by the humans, the orc army quickly rushed to the city wall. The crossbowmen on the wall retreated to the second line to shoot arrows, and the combination of shield soldiers and spearmen stepped forward to resist.
Although the tactics used by the orcs were terrible, 20,000 was a number that was enough to cause a qualitative change, so their mindless charge did put a lot of pressure on the coalition forces. If they were allowed to continue attacking, they could even pile up corpses on the eight-meter-high ice wall.
However, at this moment, Dick, who had already become a holy-level magician, took action.
He deliberately planned for a while and waited until all the orc troops stepped onto the ice of Nie River before taking action.
It can only be said that the orcs are worthy of being orcs. If another group of people came, they would suffer the same loss again. Dick estimated that there was a high probability that they did not have any intelligence exchange among themselves, otherwise they should be very clear about the dangers of fighting on the ice.
The spell Dick used was a kind of daily magic that even magic apprentices could learn, called "Boiling Hot Water".
This spell, as the name suggests, is used to boil water. It does not use open flames but instead uses magic power to boil water. The principle is somewhat similar to boiling water on an induction cooker.
It's just that the same magic can only be used by an apprentice to boil water and make tea, but when used by Dick, a newly promoted holy-level magician, it can directly heat up the surface of the Nie River which is several kilometers wide.
The orcs who were running across the river suddenly felt the ice beneath their feet begin to shake violently, and then crack everywhere. The heated river water produced a huge amount of steam, which directly broke through the weak points of the ice layer and gushed out from the cracks.
Those unlucky ones who were too close would be steamed alive almost instantly!
Because Dick used magic to heat the water under the ice, the ice layer that was originally several meters thick was melted in a very short time. A large number of orcs fell directly into the boiling river water, screaming in pain from the burns. On the side near the north bank, those orcs who had already rushed over were suddenly cut off.
Dick was worried that this move could only be used once, so he had to choose the time when the orcs deployed the most troops to attack and maximize the results. But the other side's commander was possessed by Chen Youliang, who gave him a "first battle is the decisive battle, one battle determines the outcome" strategy, and deployed all his troops in the first attack.
I can only say that this wave of enemy coordination was truly amazing!
At this time, Barlow himself was standing on the edge of the ice on the west bank. The large amount of water vapor dispelled the coldness of midwinter, but also made him sweat profusely. He was glad that he was at the end of the team because of his heavy weight and slow running speed, so he was lucky enough not to fall into the river.
Looking at the melting ice, Barro retreated, and the soldiers of the same tribe followed him. These orcs had no idea what was happening, and they foolishly thought that this strange phenomenon was a punishment from the gods. They were so frightened that their faces changed drastically, and they turned around and fled into the woods without caring about the friendly troops on the other side who were still fighting.
140. Cunning Beast
Unlike the great victory of the Eastern Nobles' Coalition, the battle in front of the pass fortress in the Central Mountains, led by the Beast King Ramon himself, was a completely different scene.
The defenders stationed in the fortress realized that this orc army was unusual as soon as it appeared before them, because their organization and training level were high, unlike orcs. They had uniform armor and weapons, and could march in decent formations. They would dig trenches and carry out civil engineering work before officially starting a war, and seemed to be well aware of the range and power of the human magical weapons.
"What the hell! Is this still an orc?"
The Pass Fortress serves as a passage connecting the north and the south. Due to its dangerous terrain and its location in the heart of the empire, the garrison in the fortress is only maintained at around 3,000 people all year round, equipped with 16 large-caliber muzzle-loading magic cannons and a 300-man magic musketeer team.
This military configuration was not a problem in the past. Many imperial soldiers stationed here thought that they might not have a chance to fight until they retired. But no one expected that the orcs in the northern wilderness would rise up without anyone noticing. The army directly killed through the northern territory and approached the fortress at the pass.
As for the garrison of the fortress, the commander was not in the fortress at this time, but took sick leave and returned to the glamorous world of the imperial capital to "recuperate". Fortunately, his deputy was still there, and was a very serious military officer. On the one hand, he was preparing for war, and on the other hand, he frantically wrote letters to the south for help. The messages were not only sent to the imperial capital, but also to the neighboring lords, asking them to send troops for support.
The two sides confronted each other for several days before the orcs launched their first tentative attack. The defending human soldiers then discovered that the orcs had spent so much time procrastinating that they had actually made a batch of siege equipment using local materials. There were carts with arrow shields in the front row, large wall-climbing ladders, and even some forward-deployed catapults could be vaguely seen in the trenches behind.
Although these devices are still inferior to those of the human army in terms of technology, it is incredible to think that these things were made by a group of orcs!
The orcs deployed very few troops in the first round of attack, only about less than two thousand, but this number was obviously taken into consideration the width of the battlefield. The front of the pass fortress was a canyon less than a kilometer wide. If the troops deployed were too dense, it would be tantamount to sending battle results to the artillery in the fortress.
After the orcs' attack began, the fortress defenders decisively fought back.
As a guard organization affiliated with the central empire, the fortress garrison was allowed to be equipped with heavy firearms, which was their privilege.
The prototype of the muzzle-loading magic cannon is the Napoleon cannon on Earth, but it is a modified product that uses an alchemical powder that is more powerful than black gunpowder as propellant. In order to enhance the strength of the gun body, cold iron is added during the forging process, and there are also magic runes on the outer wall of the barrel to increase the range of the projectile.
With the help of drugs and enchantments, the performance of this modified Napoleon cannon has reached a level that its Earth ancestor could never dream of.
Faced with the powerful magic cannon of the human race, the orcs' first round of attack was quickly crushed.
But soon afterwards, the orcs quickly launched a new round of offensive with adjusted tactics, and demonstrated extremely flexible response measures in the battle.
They intensified the civil engineering work, allowing the front of the trench to move closer to the city wall.
They carefully created fake targets to trick the artillery in the city into wasting ammunition.
They even used chemical weapons during the fourth attack!
The defenders soon began to feel the pressure, and the commander could vaguely sense that the enemy's previous attacks were just tests and consumption, and they still had their real killer moves to use.
"War is indeed a very profound subject!"
On the orc army side, Ramon hid in a hidden bunker, watching the attack from afar. The orc troops fighting on the front line all wore robes of different colors according to their troop affiliation and functions, so that the commanders in the rear could observe them. Ramon's orders would be remotely controlled through the horns of the messengers to control the front-line troops to take action.
Ramon was not very adaptable to this carefully camouflaged bunker at first. He felt that as the commander-in-chief of the legion, he should stand in a place where he could be seen by his soldiers. This would not only make it easier to command, but also boost the morale of his subordinates. Lying in a pit made him look as if he was very afraid of death.
However, he was immediately dissuaded from this idea by his black-robed staff, who told him not to do such a thing because the human army had cannons.
The power of a single shot of a magic cannon exceeds that of high-level magic, and it can hit farther!
In order to prove that the human race's magic cannon could fire far and accurately, the staff specially created a fake Ramon and had him stand in a conspicuous position. However, less than half a minute later, artillery fire covered them and blew the fake Ramon and the small slope under his feet into the sky.
Since then, Ramon never disliked the cover again, but he also couldn't stop thinking about the human cannons.
With the two sides' troop strength six times different, Ramon's orc army fought for three days. The most successful time was when some of the suicide squads managed to climb to the top of the city wall, but they were quickly driven down by the human army.
The musketeers of the human race only went into battle at critical moments, and stayed on standby at other times, but there would be snipers hiding in the towers to shoot the front-line commanders of the orcs. They had killed Ramon's seven sons, all of whom were smart children that he valued very much.
Fortunately, their deaths were not completely in vain. The firing frequency of the fortress defenders dropped significantly from the third day, and it was suspected that the ammunition stock was running low.
On the fifth day of the attack, Ramon received news of the defeat of the eastward mopping-up army. At his urging, Barlow used a "whole family attack" to reduce the remaining 20,000 soldiers by half. At the same time, his spies brought back some not-so-good news, that is, there was suspected to be a holy-level magician within the human race's eastern coalition.
Upon hearing the news, Ramon's expression was inevitably a little solemn. The fact that the mopping-up corps was severely damaged was indeed within his expectations, and even intentional. A lot of key intelligence was deliberately suppressed by Ramon, so that Barro could be confused and sent to the battlefield.
But in his original plan, even if the mopping-up army could not escape the fate of defeat in the end, it should not be defeated so quickly. They should at least play a certain role of restraint and fight the human army in the east for several months. It would be best if they could fight the human race to a mutual defeat.
As a result, the 20,000 orcs were like 20,000 pigs. They collapsed after just one day of charging forward. It seemed that the sudden appearance of the Saint-level master was the main reason for the rapid defeat of the mopping-up army. This forced Ramon to be careful and vigilant.
Thanks to the huge population base, the total number of masters above the Saint level in the human race is more than all other races combined, and the overall combat power makes it the undisputed strongest race in the world.
But the human race is just as disunited as the orcs. They occupy a vast territory and are divided into many countries, which forces their strong men to scatter around the world. Some masters are even caught in a mutually locked balance of power because their respective countries are in hostile relations.
For example, the Maple Dew Kingdom, the Hessian Empire's number one rival, has a demigod and seven saint-level warriors, forcing the empire to arrange an equal number of warriors to take charge in this direction. These masters are equivalent to being nailed to the south and will not easily support the north.
It was precisely because of his understanding of the human race that Ramon had the confidence to capture the north where the empire was relatively weak. He was sure that the empire would not be able to concentrate all its efforts to deal with him, and other human countries that were not on good terms with the empire would take the opportunity to attack and help him contain the empire.
But now a powerful Saint-level figure suddenly appeared in the north of the empire. His existence was like a variable, and it was very likely to affect Ramon's plan.
"It seems like we have to find a way to get rid of this guy..."
On the other side of the coalition forces, the decisive victory of the Niehe Battle reversed the offensive and defensive situation between the humans and the orcs. This battle directly crippled the main force of the orcs. Thousands of orcs fell into the water and drowned. Thousands of other orcs who reached the east bank had no way to retreat and were wiped out by the human coalition forces.
When fighting this group of orcs, Dick did not take action, but left the opportunity to achieve success to the soldiers under him. He used it as a strategic force to guard against possible follow-up actions of the enemy.
Dick was sure that the orcs definitely had powerful Saints, and there should be more than one, otherwise Ramon would not have the confidence to invade the north of the empire. It was just that he would not use his strategic force easily as a trump card.
The individual combat power of the orcs was still strong. Even though their morale had plummeted, the orcs who had their retreat cut off still fought desperately. The coalition forces were barely able to annihilate them before sunset. During this period, there were more than one incidents where high-level orcs acted as suicide squads and forced their way onto the city walls.
By the time the battle was over, the re-frozen river surface had turned red, and some orcs were frozen, remaining in a "lifelike" state under the ice.
When Hoffman went to the front-line city to inspect, he looked at the purgatory-like scene for a long time without saying a word. He simply couldn't imagine what a terrible scene it would be if he and his family were to deal with it alone, if his troops were forced to fight a field battle with these wolf-like orcs.
"Fortunately, these orcs are as stupid as wild beasts."
"No, you're wrong." Dick immediately responded.
"Real beasts are very cunning!"
141. Declaration of Independence
After the coalition forces defeated the orc mopping-up army, the news of victory spread rapidly in the areas that had not yet been conquered by the human race, as if it had wings.
This was a deliberate propaganda by Count Hoffmann. He hoped to attract those lords who had been on the sidelines to join the coalition forces, thereby further expanding the coalition forces' strength.
Because they only severely damaged the orcs' mopping-up army, and they were not even able to wipe them out. The enemy still had tens of thousands of reserve troops stockpiled on the border. This fresh force posed a huge threat. If they were mobilized to support the eastern front, the border army hiding in the fortress might not have the courage to take the initiative to attack.
Dick did not object to Hoffman's idea, but he reminded him to be careful of speculators and possible insiders. In addition, those who came later must bring their own food and grass. There are hundreds of thousands of people in the coalition camp, and their material reserves are close to the red line. If they don't want to cause famine, then every grain of food must be carefully calculated.
Dick's worries were soon realized. A few days later, various chaotic "rebel forces" came one after another to join the coalition forces.
The one with the most "powerful" military force among them was a viscount. He brought a team of thousands of people and claimed that he would fight to defend the dignity of the empire, but he only brought about three days of rations. He demanded that the coalition forces provide them with food and a salary of one silver coin per person per day. Finally, he even asked shamelessly if there were any women?
You should know that there are regulations in the empire that the royal family will take the lead in forming a coalition of nobles, and the nobles must provide their own weapons and food. This is the "obligation" that the nobles should fulfill legally, but as long as they fight well, they can be rewarded by the royal family, and their titles can be upgraded and they can obtain fiefs.
And if the nobles take the lead in forming a joint force, then the organizers have to provide money and supplies, because nobles have no obligations to nobles, and people help you out of kindness.
Hoffman looked at their "thousand-man army". The only ones with decent equipment were the fifty or so personal soldiers around the viscount, but they looked like bandits and didn't look like good people. The rest were temporary militiamen. In this damn weather, they were even wearing tattered clothes and holding sharpened wooden sticks as weapons.
Obviously! These are the "speculators" that Dick warned Hoffman to be careful of. When the situation is difficult, they stay away and watch others fight with the orcs. When the battle situation improves, they jump out in a hurry, wanting to mix into the victorious camp and get a share of the spoils.
Hoffman naturally knew that allowing these scoundrels who were obviously here to take credit would definitely do more harm than good to join the coalition, but he still adhered to the old-school lords' idea of fighting a war with as many troops as possible, and agreed to let them join the coalition, thinking of using them as cannon fodder.
But soon, the arrival of a heavyweight figure caused some unnecessary turmoil within the originally stable coalition.
According to the Imperial Nobility Law, the highest title of a local lord was earl, while the higher-ranking dukes and marquises had to settle in the imperial capital and delegate their territories to governors.
But there are always exceptions. Some royal relatives enjoy an honorary title that is "one level higher" than their titles because of their special status. The Marquis Richard in the north is such a nobleman.
He was originally an earl, but because his sister married King VII of Hesse and became the fourth imperial consort of the empire, his title was upgraded to "honorary marquis" without changing the size of his fiefdom, making him the only marquis lord in the entire northern region.
Marquis Ad Richard was a powerful lord in the north. His fiefdom contained a gold mine and a silver mine, so his family was very wealthy. He maintained the largest private army in the north, with 3,000 regular troops alone. He often bullied the men and women in the surrounding territories.
After the orc invasion, Hoffman also asked for help from Marquis Richard, but was flatly rejected.
As a result, the coalition forces won several major victories in succession and annihilated a large number of enemy troops, giving people the feeling that the orc army seemed easy to deal with. Marquis Richard could no longer sit still.
The Marquis himself led an army of 5,000 and marched to the front in a mighty and high-profile manner!
Due to the other party's identity, although Hoffman did not like this marquis who was obviously here to take advantage of him, he had no choice but to welcome his arrival with great ceremony.
As for Dick and old Banner, they also arrived out of courtesy, but there was no enthusiasm on their faces.
"Old man, are you familiar with this person? I have not been in the north for long and have never met this person."
"It's a good thing I haven't met him. He's a complete jerk. You can find all the flaws in human nature in him."
"Is it so exquisite?"
The old man shrugged, his face showing no disdain.
At this time, the private military guard of the Marquis Richard's family had already arrived, and the Marquis himself was sitting in a luxurious carriage glittering with gold. The aura of a nouveau riche was overwhelming.
After the carriage stopped, a middle-aged man wearing a luxurious court dress and exuding the scent of a lady came out of the carriage. The servant beside him immediately knelt on the snow and let the man step on his back as a step to get off the carriage. This pretentious scene made Dick feel so embarrassed that he wanted to pick his feet just by looking at it.
The other party went down to the ground where the snow had been cleared, ignored Hoffman who took the initiative to greet him, and instead frowned, sniffed, then took out a handkerchief to cover his nose.
