I will be crowned king

Seeing that the Judgment Knight agreed to his request so happily, Borre Levent even couldn't believe his ears, and he was stunned on the spot for several seconds.

In fact, he had hoped for a moment that the other party would refuse the request, and then he would appeal to the Holy See on the grounds that he could not compete with Anson Bach, who probably had the power of the Old God Sect—more precisely, the Rune Family. The headquarters requested reinforcements, such as sending some judges from the Tribunal or a branch of the Judgment Knights, which somewhat increased the confidence of the soldiers under their command, and the other party immediately agreed.

But now that the words had been released, he couldn't bear the consequences of going back on his words... Borre Levent had no choice but to bite the bullet and issue operational arrangements to the army with a confident expression on his face.

His plan was simple: since Anson Bach wanted to lure him to attack, he fulfilled his wish. The 20,000 Holy War Army was divided into four parts, three in front and one in back, to attack his Storm Legion pretending to be marching in three directions. and the shooting army, and then quickly formed a unified front on the front, chasing the "retreating" army and advancing westward.

And he led the army's most elite reserve team to quickly outflank Ansen Bach's flanks and back while the entire army was pressing forward, trying to block his retreat path. It was best to surround him in the middle. Dismember, annihilate.

"There are only two roads from White Whale Port to Slave Port - the best way is of course to pass through Ash Snow Town and Straw Town. Finally arriving here, most of Anson Bach's twelve thousand people need to march quickly and also lure us. To attack, this is the path to take.”

"But in fact, according to the information I have learned, there is a direct road from Gray Snow Town to the Slave Port, but the road is more rugged, and it hardly passes any colony on the way - which means it is difficult to obtain supplies. , but it’s not like we can’t leave.” Borre Levent tapped the map on the table with the hilt of his sword:

"If I were Anson Bach, in order to ensure smooth logistics supply for the army, then the stronghold of Straw Town would be particularly important. I must do my best to ensure that the roads here are firmly in my hands, and I must not make any mistakes; he put the marching route The queue is so long, I’m afraid there’s also the idea of ​​protecting the logistics.”

"Although the two roads are not far apart, they are separated by woods and hills. The army must move close to the water source. At the same time, the two-line army seems to be able to rely on each other, but in fact, except for one location near Daocao Town, the water source crosses , the rest of the areas are all very far away. If any side is attacked, it is impossible for the other side to provide timely assistance except for roughly knowing the location of the station."

"Assaulting one army and then deterring another is the core of our operation." Borei showed a cruel smile:

"The ultimate goal is of course to annihilate them all, but before that... we have to scare them to death - literally."

Scared to death?

The officers and knights who did not understand the meaning of the legion commander looked puzzled.

"Don't understand? It doesn't matter if you don't understand. Everyone just needs to obey the orders." Borre Levent smiled nonchalantly: "The great ring of order will lead us to victory."

"And everything will start from here!"

The moment he finished speaking, the hilt of the sword, which was gold-plated and inlaid with rubies at the end, hit a raised pattern on the map.

……………………

Northwest of the slave port, somewhere in an unknown mountainous area.

A group of ragged soldiers dragged a baggage cart and stumbled along the road at the foot of the mountain with difficulty; they were panting and could not see any luggage or weapons from head to toe. They were almost using their hands and feet as they hurried along, and their military uniforms were gone. Without sleeves, hat, shoes...the only distance left without pants is from thighs to big hips.

Except for the red and black rags on the chest that have been soaked with sweat and dust until they are bleached, the luggage and weapons stacked on the baggage cart behind you, and the 11-star ring flag carried in front of the leader, you can no longer tell that this is an army from any aspect. , rather than refugees seeking survival in the wilderness.

It only took the Second Infantry Regiment four days to go from a neat military appearance to its current dignity.

In order to fulfill Anson Bach's order to march quickly and rush to the slave port as quickly as possible at all costs, they almost threw away most of their baggage when they set off, carrying only a small amount of food and a certain amount of necessities, and the minimum weapons and ammunition. , packed lightly and ran like crazy, completing one-third of the journey the day before.

Of course, the cost was that the entire army was reduced to dead dogs on the roadside, hundreds of people were slightly injured, and more than 200 pairs of boots were lost.

In the next few days, the situation continued to become increasingly outrageous. In order to prevent further injuries caused by wear and tear, many soldiers simply tore their military uniforms into short-sleeved shorts, and did not get in the way of hats. They discarded everything except food and loaded weapons into vehicles; except for the regiment leader Alexei Dukasky, everyone is no longer burdened from head to toe.

In this way, the Second Infantry Group, which had been marching for four days, had already exhausted its strength and still failed to reach its destination on time - and they were not even doing well. The shooting army that followed them had begun to experience missing soldiers and attrition. Condition.

Alexei expressed doubts about this, and he preferred to believe that there were deserters - the indigenous people must be more familiar and adaptable to the geographical environment of the New World than themselves.

Carrying the brand-new military flag, Alexei was so tired that he had the urge to stick out his tongue. He struggled to open his legs and straighten his body completely - he was the leader of the regiment, and everyone in the regiment could cry tired, except for If he can't, the blow to morale will be extremely heavy.

Holding back his lead-filled feet, he continued to complain in his heart about why he was always the unlucky one. He also expressed a little doubt about the mission: in addition to the emergency march, the other mission of the Second Infantry Regiment was to capture the slaves outside the slave port. Build fortifications.

But now there is a small problem: shovels and shovels are needed to repair the fortifications, but these two items have been thrown away by myself to save energy.

Even if he didn't throw them away, he didn't believe that these long-legged walking humanoid dried meats behind him would have the strength to dig holes in the soil. They would probably dig them out to bury him alive.

In this case, no matter whether he can arrive at the slave port on time or not, he will definitely not be able to complete the mission. It is impossible that Commander-in-Chief Anson Bach does not know this kind of thing, so why is he doing this?

After four days of suffering, Alexey Dukasky, who was about to literally die from exhaustion, finally noticed something unusual and fell into deep suspicion.

at this time……

"boom----!!!!"

The ear-piercing roar exploded across the valley, as if someone was hitting the hills with a hammer. Even if they were far away, they could clearly feel the violent vibrations coming from the ground.

The 2nd Infantry Regiment, which was trudging just a second ago, almost immediately stopped. The officer, who was so exhausted that he was hoarse from shouting, quickly raised the military flag and asked the unarmed soldiers to assemble around the flag one company after another. The team turned into a scattered column formation. The soldiers at the end of the team stopped the carriage close to the team, beating drums and spreading flowers to carry the weapons on the car.

Five minutes later, the entire infantry regiment was fully prepared for battle. They formed several phalanxes on the mountain road with a certain distance in front and back, and at the same time, they guarded the surrounding six directions to prevent enemy shelling.

Holding the military flag, Alexey squatted in the center of the large square, squinting and trying hard to look at the place where the sound came from - his telescope had been lost long ago when passing through a certain forest, leaving only half a picture of himself. Hand drawn map.

"That direction seems to be a certain shooting army combat camp..." Alexei guessed as he muttered, recalling the order of departure.

Although it is also an army based on the Clovis military system, due to the lack of officers, the smallest combat unit of the entire shooting army is the battalion level. A battalion has two hundred people, which is larger than an ordinary company but smaller than an ordinary battalion.

Each battalion has two company commanders, but in fact they are all part-time. In addition to the battalion commander himself, the deputy battalion commander and the general secretary each serve concurrently. The following positions are only the "half platoon commander" of the indigenous civilian officers. There are twenty people in the team, and there are four squads under it, each with five people - but this is only a job establishment, and only the battalion level has the ability to fight independently.

Therefore, judging from the sound of artillery and sporadic gunfire, Alexey could easily guess that a certain combat battalion was ambushed and was exchanging fire with the enemy. The sounds of both sides were easy to identify, and the sound of artillery and the dense and neat The volley of guns must be the enemy, and the sporadic firing must be the shooting army.

Even Alexey could judge from the rhythm of both sides that the shooting army was probably about to be defeated - otherwise, with the habit of indigenous warriors keen on hand-to-hand combat, the enemy would not have been able to fire such a high frequency and continuous volley of shots.

So the question came: "Captain, should we go over to support them?"

"support?"

Alexey was stunned for a moment, looking at the chief of staff behind him who was more honest than himself, and said inexplicably: "Look at the honor of our soldiers, and then think about the distance between them and us. Do you really not think this proposal is so... unreasonable at all?"

"Of course we all understand this. With everyone's physical strength, even if we catch up with the battle, we probably won't have the physical strength to pull the trigger, but...!" The Chief of Staff looked anxious:

"If we don't rescue, let's not say whether we are sitting back and watching the death of friendly troops - if a chain reaction is triggered and the entire five thousand shooting army is wiped out, who will we take to surround the slave port?"

Ah, this... Alexey was stunned. This seemed to be a problem.

After hesitating for almost half a minute, Alek, with a solemn expression, quickly scanned the soldiers and the surrounding terrain with his eyes, and then made a decision: "No rescue, continue marching!"

"Oh, Captain..."

"Stop talking, I know what you are going to say - you cannot ignore death, let alone stubbornly carry out orders that are no longer achievable, but believe me, this is really not the case!"

Alexei struggled to support his body with the flagpole and stood up slowly: "If the opposite side is the commander-in-chief's headquarters, I will lead you to climb over even if I am exhausted, but this is not the situation we are facing now. It was an enemy ambush, and a precise ambush of our small group of troops who were marching hastily. What does this mean?"

"It shows that this is a purposeful and planned action, and it is absolutely based on the premise of knowing our marching route; if we rescue recklessly, the enemy's trap will be waiting for us."

"So we don't go to the rescue to avoid falling into a trap?"

"On the contrary, not going to rescue will make the enemy think that their goal has been achieved." Alexei shook his head: "You think they attacked a combat camp of the Shooting Army just to annihilate the more than two hundred indigenous soldiers. ——If this requires several times the number of troops, cavalry and artillery, then the Jihadi Army on the opposite side may not be really crazy."

"Their real purpose is to frighten all the other troops who have fallen behind from the main force due to the rush march, making them panic, frightened, overwhelmed, and make irrational actions - some of them will retreat, leading them to the real The other part of the main force will march forward and become the remnants that can be eaten as they please after they have wiped out the main force."

The commander of the Second Infantry Regiment sneered and made a self-deprecating stroke: "What we want to do is the latter."

The officers and soldiers were still extremely unresponsive, but decided to obey Alexei's judgment and continued to march forward on hands and feet, and they looked even more embarrassed than before.

Behind them, the sound of gunfire gradually fell, and billowing black smoke rose from the other side of the hillside, indicating that a certain battle had come to an end.

The Jihad Army, which had assembled nearly a thousand people, annihilated the entire Shooting Army combat camp. It was expected to be a battle, and a massacre would be more appropriate to describe it; in order to ensure the deterrent effect, each unit responsible for the ambush carried artillery, and Strictly restricting the scope of cavalry's last-ditch attack and pursuit, ensuring that no less than one-fifth of the defeated "New World Legion" will desert.

And such battles did not only occur along the way of the 2nd Infantry Regiment... Within two days, Anson received more than double-digit frontline battle reports. Many troops were either ambushed and defeated, or were nearly wiped out. The casualties were already three. The high number of digits.

Part of the army retreated to the rear, while some of the "lucky ones" who were not ambushed continued to march rapidly, constantly widening the distance from the rear army, completely losing contact, and becoming a literally alone army.

At the same time, a large net, a large net composed of multiple fronts, began to approach the direction of Daocao Town, closely following the retreating army, clearly preparing for an encirclement.

In Straw Town, Anson, who looked proud, presented the compiled intelligence and the enemy's march route drawn by his own judgment in front of Carl Bain; the helpless adjutant rolled his eyes and expressed dissatisfaction. But he had to admit the reality and said:

"Well, it seems that you really got it right this time - our enemies are really that stupid!"

To answer a previous reader's question, some people can take a break, which is why they have to travel and work overtime on holidays (*)