Lord Harland.

A person who has no overall concept cannot be the commander of the main army.

Especially the commander of the main army in the northern border, because he often faces wars, his requirements are even higher.

At this moment, Stein did not know that King Roger had already made plans to replace him.

On the fifth day after Stein led his troops to Harden Castle, it rained suddenly.

At dusk, Stein patrolled the city with his guards, and found that many veterans were hiding under the eaves to avoid the rain, and the queues were standing in a mess. When they saw the officer coming, they returned to the team and formed a team in a hurry. It's not tidy, and morale seems to be relatively low.

Stein opened his mouth, but in the end he did not punish the soldier.In such harsh rainy weather, it would be too unreasonable to demand a neat military appearance and high morale.

A large part of a soldier's combat effectiveness depends on morale.

Morale is again a state of mind that fluctuates a lot.

An excellent commanding officer is one who can mobilize and boost morale in adversity.

Stein had not been in the Northern Legion for a long time, and instead of doing an inch of merit, he punished many soldiers in the army, which has caused many officers and soldiers to complain.Although the officers and soldiers at the grassroots level can't provoke him, it is more difficult for him to get into the hearts of the soldiers than the former legion chief Zachary.

So Stein can only govern the army with a tolerant attitude.

Once it is too harsh and its prestige is not high, and then punishes the officers and soldiers for some trivial matters, causing the officers and soldiers to rebel and engage in mutiny, it will become particularly troublesome to deal with it.

Stein turned around on the city wall, and when he was about to withdraw, he suddenly heard a shout.The sound came from the lookout post.

Hearing this shout, Stein raised his head and asked at the lookout: "Why are you panicking? What happened?"

"Three miles away from the city, there seems to be a large group of orcs approaching!" The sentry's voice was a little frightened, and he wiped his eyes to wake himself up.

"Quickly, climb up to the lookout post and have a look. Let the soldiers gather immediately."

Stein's reaction was quick, and he immediately commanded the soldiers around him to board the lookout post to observe the enemy's situation, and at the same time ordered the soldiers to notify the reserve team to assemble.

The quality of the Northern Army Corps was very good. After hearing the assembly order, despite the heavy rain outside, there was no delay and the assembly was completed quickly.

There was another thunder in the sky, and a bolt of lightning struck straight down, twisting and turning, and the dense clouds in the sky seemed to be split open.

On rainy days, it is not easy to ignite beacon smoke, and it is also difficult to convey messages by voice and semaphore.It was difficult for the news of the orcs to attack the city to pass on to William in the village outside the city.

Seeing the orcs begin to gather outside the city gate, the important officers in Harden Castle boarded the city. Zachary and Rab roughly estimated the number of orcs and found that Stein had no further orders, so they immediately found the top officer of the garrison together.

The situation was urgent, and Rab grabbed Stein's arm directly and said, "The monster cavalry is not suitable for defending the city. Please ask the army commander to order the soldiers to open the city gate, put down the drawbridge, let the monster cavalry brigade go out of the city, and flank the orcs to cooperate." The defenders are fighting, and after we leave the city, we will send troops to notify William."

"Lowering the suspension bridge now is very threatening. Will the orcs rush over immediately and disrupt your position?"

"The Warcraft Cavalry has a very strong combat effectiveness, and the officers and soldiers are of high quality. It only takes a short time to rush out of the city gate. When the Warcraft Cavalry has space to fight, it will not be difficult to defeat one or two Orc brigades."

Seeing that the orcs were already making their final assembly and that time could not be delayed, Zachary also stepped forward to persuade them.

Although Stein was a bit suspicious and indecisive, he still listened to the opinions of the two at critical moments.He immediately ordered the Warcraft Cavalry Brigade to go out of the city to fight, and passed the news to William outside the castle.

As soon as the Demonic Beast Cavalry Brigade left the city, the orcs had completed their assembly.

The orcs advanced very quickly, and in a short time they were two to three hundred steps away from the city head and within the range of the trebuchet.

Although you can also use a counterweighted trebuchet on rainy days, the accuracy and range of the trebuchet will be greatly affected.

Dozens of catapults in Harden Castle kept throwing stone bullets, and heavy stone bullets fell from the sky, occasionally hitting the advancing orc array, smashing the besieging orcs into meatloaf.

Seeing this tragic situation, the orc army was not in any disorder.

Although Stein had relatively little experience in war, he was also a noble officer with a family inheritance. After seeing this scene, he immediately discovered that the orcs attacking the city were elite soldiers.

The most elite soldiers of the Northern Army are outside the city, and the defenders on top of the city are slightly weaker in combat effectiveness.

Seeing the orcs being so ferocious, the strong soldiers in Outerstein suddenly became frightened.

Zachary, on the other hand, showed no emotion or anger on his face, directing the soldiers to fire arrows like a robot.

Seeing that the soldiers of the Redeemer Legion began to shoot arrows, the soldiers of the Northern Territory Legion also followed the rhythm of the soldiers of the Redeemer Legion, firing feather arrows one after another.

There are defenders at Harden Castle, and front-line troops guard the top of the city.

More than half of the soldiers were equipped with bows and arrows.There are two to three thousand archers on each wall.

This round of arrow rain was very dense, and immediately shot down some orcs in the front row.

The elite orcs reacted quickly and entered the range of the archers. The tauren showed a pair of diamond-shaped shields. These shields are extremely wide and thick, and one side weighs hundreds of catties. Only the powerful orcs such as the tauren and the snake-body man I can lift it up.

The orc connected the shields together, as if building a shield wall out of thin air, blocking a crossbow arrow.

A moat with a width of more than ten meters was excavated outside Harden Castle. The water in the moat is relatively shallow, about two meters deep, and large ships cannot pass through it.

In the blink of an eye, the orcs had rushed to the moat in the heavy rain. The kobolds were very fast. They rushed out from behind the big shield, jumped off the moat one after another, and swam across the river bank quickly.

Arrows rained down from the top of the city, but the orcs didn't care, and continued to rush up. The kobold corpses floated on the moat, and over time, they filled the moat.

For a while, it rained cats and dogs, and the battle was loud and loud.

The kobolds who crossed the river built a shelter with the corpses of their companions, and then used long wooden poles to lay planks to build a simple pontoon bridge.

Some tall and powerful tauren jumped off the moat, using their bodies as piers to support the pontoon bridge.

After crossing the moat, the orc soldiers used slings to throw stone projectiles. Some orcs who could shoot arrows also began to use the corpses of their companions as cover to shoot at the top of the city.

Although the exchange ratio was very bad, there were still casualties on the city. Many soldiers were stoned to death and injured, and shrill cries came from the city walls.

The grassroots officers cooperated tacitly, while organizing the rain of arrows to suppress the orcs, and at the same time asked the auxiliary soldiers to quickly transfer the wounded, so as not to affect the morale of the front line.

The orcs fought bravely, and after casualties, they finally cleared the obstacles to the siege, filled the trenches, and built a wide pontoon bridge.

It was already evening, and the rain had finally stopped.

The dark clouds had gradually dispersed, the setting sun shone on the city, and the dark red city wall seemed to be bleeding.

Stein came to the front line in person, with a gloomy face, and shouted to the herald: "Notify the catapult crew, change to alchemy bombs, oil fire bombs.",

Of course, the Kingdom of Grant has alchemy bombs, but these alchemy bombs are purchased and the price is very expensive, and the main army will equip some of them.

Inside the Northern Legion, if there is no war, the reserve of alchemy bombs is between one and two hundred.

If it is used up during the war, it cannot be replenished in a short time.

In addition to alchemy bombs, the main army will also stockpile explosive arrows and oil fire bombs.

Explosive arrows can be refined by the Grant Mage Association, and they are more powerful than alchemy bombs, but the production cost is very high, exceeding two hundred gold coins.

But because the Grant Mage Association can refine it by itself, the reserve of the main army is actually higher.The combined reserves of the Legion Department, the brigade, and the squadron total more than pieces.

If it is used at one time, it is enough to severely damage several orc brigades.

As the name suggests, oil fire bombs are mainly made of light petroleum, mixed with a certain proportion of flammable substances such as sulfur, asphalt, rosin, and resin, and then packed into sealed earthen jars.

When used, ignite the oil fire bomb and then throw it out with a trebuchet.

Seeing that the weather had turned fine, Stein immediately ordered the use of oil fire bombs and alchemy bombs.

Dozens of trebuchets made a bang, and dozens of fireballs flew directly up, crossing an arc and falling into the orc formation.

The oil and fire bombs shattered upon contact, and flames flew everywhere, igniting the armor and hair on the orcs' bodies.

Oil fire bombs use special raw materials, not only are they light in weight and very flammable, they are also difficult to extinguish even if they are hit on water.

These flames splashing in all directions are like gangrene attached to the bone.The burning ghosts cried and howled wolves, it was extremely miserable.

Even the orc's siege equipment was ignited by oil fire bombs.

Seeing that the siege of the city was blocked, the orcs immediately changed their tactics, and the snake-like heavy infantry appeared in large numbers.

In order to avoid the attack of the trebuchets, the serpentine heavy infantry ranks were very dispersed and mixed among the orcs. At the same time, the harpies also began to circle around the city, looking for opportunities to launch a surprise attack.

After discovering that the Snake Man had changed his tactics, Stein reacted quickly and adjusted his tactics, abandoning the use of trebuchets and handing over the alchemy bombs to the professional officers of the Northern Legion.

Let them choose the timing of throwing, specifically hunting orc professionals.

At the foot of the city wall, explosions continued to sound.

The alchemy bomb used by the Northern Legion is twice as powerful as the version made by Richard because of the use of flint stone.

An alchemy bomb exploded beside him, and even a third-order snake-body man could hardly survive the explosion.

The alchemy bombs were used continuously at any time, causing heavy casualties to the orc professionals.Only a few snake-bodied men broke into the city wall and began to climb the city wall.

Seeing that the snake-body was risking his life to break through the blockade, the harpy also lowered his altitude and fired energy missiles.

In an instant, hundreds of energy missiles exploded on the city wall, causing an immediate loss of more than 200 soldiers.

More than two hundred people were killed or injured, causing a certain degree of chaos in an instant.

Seeing that the harpy had lowered its height, the sharp archers of the northern legion raised their bows and aimed at the harpy and fired bursting arrows.

Two or three hundred archers fired arrows together, shooting more than two hundred explosive arrows, and actually hunted and killed more than eighty harpies.

Such a heavy casualty immediately frightened the Harpy, preventing him from circling at low altitude.

Snake-body people are good at climbing, once they get close to the city wall, they can climb up very fast.

Some serpents scaled the walls, causing some confusion.

Stein discovered that the snake-like people had climbed up the city wall and immediately organized professional officers to drive them away.

Zachary drew elites from the reserve team, like a fire brigade, to constantly put out danger.

Just as Harden Castle fell into a bitter battle, Captain Rab led the monster cavalry brigade, defeated the orc wolf cavalry, and began to flank the orc's right wing.

After leaving the city, Rab notified William of the news.

After receiving the battle report, William took the initiative to attack the left flank of the orc army with three brigade soldiers.

The orcs had more troops. After discovering that enemies appeared on both wings, the orcs decisively mobilized five brigades to block them. Two brigades blocked the Warcraft Cavalry, and three brigades intercepted William.

The reason why the Northern Legion was able to annihilate a legion of orcs was due to the unexpected surprise attack.

Braving the heavy rain, the orcs also launched a surprise attack, only to encounter Stein, a cautious commander.

If the surprise attack is not successful, it is equivalent to kicking down the iron plate and turning into a siege battle with sharp swords and sharp guns.

Although the Demonic Beast Cavalry Brigade has strong fighting power, its numbers are too small.On the contrary, it was William who commanded the elite infantry of the Northern Legion, who first broke through the orc line and defeated the orc reinforcements.

Although the orcs had more troops, they were at a disadvantage in the siege battle.

Seeing that the reinforcements had broken through the interception and the siege failed, the orcs immediately sounded the retreat bugle.

The orcs who attacked the city were elite, and they followed strict orders when retreating. They were very fast and disappeared out of sight in the blink of an eye.

After repelling the orcs' siege, Stein immediately sent out the monster cavalry to chase and kill them.

As a result, the orcs were already on guard, and two orc brigades tried their best to stop them. The remaining wolf cavalry also mustered up the courage to fight against the warcraft cavalry.

Although the Warcraft Cavalry Brigade killed four hundred orc soldiers, it also suffered a reduction of thirty people.

This exchange ratio is a bit of a disadvantage for the Warcraft cavalry.

It is difficult to form the monster cavalry, but it is relatively easy to organize orc soldiers. Even if ten soldiers are exchanged for one, the monster cavalry will still suffer.

Seeing that the monster cavalry suffered a loss, Stein immediately ordered, blew the horn to retreat, and chose to accept it as soon as it was good.

In this surprise attack, the orcs suffered a big loss, losing troops.The defenders of Baron Harden's Castle suffered less casualties, losing two thousand and three.

After this battle, the strength of the orcs has weakened a lot, and the situation in the entire northern border has gradually turned around.

Although the Orc Empire is very powerful, half of its troops must be placed on the -kilometer border with the Holy Glory Empire.

The remaining half needs to be divided up to keep an eye on the undead-contaminated areas within the territory.

In addition, key areas such as the orc king's capital should also leave garrison soldiers.

Only % to % of the forces can be used to invade the Kingdom of Grant, the Kingdom of Ryan, the Principality of Lalson, the Principality of Cromia, and the Grand Duke of Stanik.

But this 30% to 40% strength makes it difficult for the five human countries to deal with it.