Lord Harland.

Chapter 295 Battle for the City Gate

The main force of the orcs aimed at the territory of Harland, and the two legions of the Central Route Army entered the province of Gascoigne along the edge of the Earl of Donny Martins and along the Kaia River.

An army of orcs restrained the army of wild lions, and an army of orcs continued to advance eastward along the upper reaches of the Black River, preventing the army in the north from acting rashly.

The orcs had a total of sixteen legions in the direction of Grant Kingdom. In addition to the three legions of the Eastern Route Army, six legions of the Central Route Army, and four legions of the West Route Army also appeared in the duchies of Edward and Fox.

The remaining three legions are not only the general reserve of the orcs, but also shoulder the heavy responsibility of rear defense and cannot be easily transferred.

Once there is no regular army behind the orcs, human slaves may riot.

The orcs came out in full force, and the four-way army approached Harland.But in a short period of time, the battle line is still relatively stable, and the only disadvantaged area is the Pratos Canyon, and the power in this area is also the most unbalanced.

In the Platos fortress, there is only a brigade of the Northern Army, [-] regular troops, [-] Gerda provincial auxiliary soldiers, and hundreds of soldiers left by Baron Sharp.

Since obtaining the fiefdom of the Grand Duchy of Stanik, Baron Sharp has passed the territory to his eldest son, and took the child born with Viscount Raphael to the Grand Duchy of Stanik, shifting the focus of managing the territory.

Baron Sharp's strength is average, and the logistics rely on the support of Viscount Raphael to maintain five or six hundred elite soldiers.Now Baron Sharp went to the Grand Duchy of Stanik and took away most of the soldiers. The soldiers left to the eldest son were of average quality and could not bear the heavy responsibility.

Although the direction of Platos has a geographical advantage, there are too few elite soldiers to stop the onslaught of the orcs.Even with the help of heavy trebuchets and alchemy bombs, hundreds of people were killed or injured in just one day, and a letter of help was sent to Fort William.

Harland led the other three directions under great pressure, and Richard didn't have many reinforcements at all.So he could only ask the commander of the Arab Army to urge the rear to quickly gather reinforcements.

The northern legion had to guard against the main force of the orcs, and was unable to mobilize reinforcements. The private armies of the nobles from the nearby Heihe and Luomen counties were dispatched to Yanhu County.

The Knight Academy of the Kingdom of Grant was the fastest to assemble, but it took them three days to assemble, raise logistical supplies, and four days to march before they could reach the Pratos Mountains.

Depending on the strength of the orc attack, the defenders of Platos held out for a day or two at most.After all, the orcs have seven brigades, which can continuously rotate and launch multiple onslaughts a day.

However, the defenders are not strong enough, and it is very difficult to repel the enemy's attack every time.

The situation became very tense, and Li Cha could only devote any power to the war.

He personally wrote an order, requiring all [-] auxiliary troops from Fort Sophia, the garrison squadron of Iron Mountain Fort, and the secret police protecting the enchanted armor manufacturing factory to be mobilized to form the first wave of reinforcements.

Then he ordered his cousin Kent to reinforce Platos Castle with soldiers from Barony Soros.

In addition, Richard also issued an order to strengthen the walls and clear the country, ordering the soldiers to massacre all the orc slaves in the iron mines, and the entire population of border castles such as Fort Sophia and Tieshan Fort to retreat to prevent the worst case scenario.

Sophia Fort and Iron Mountain Fort are more than ten kilometers away from the Platos Fortress Group. After receiving the order, the reinforcements entered the Platos Castle that night.

Although withstood the fierce attack of the orcs for a day and a half, the defenders of Platos suffered heavy casualties, especially the Ninth Brigade of the Northern Legion, which was the main force, and even the captain of the brigade was killed in battle.

The morale of the defenders had already been barely supported, but finally a thousand reinforcements arrived at night, and this thousand reinforcements gave the soldiers the confidence to persevere.

After all, it is a racial war, and the ability of soldiers to withstand casualties is very high.Even serf soldiers with weak combat effectiveness can sometimes fight the orcs desperately because of hatred.

The reinforcements consisted of three parts, with the largest number being [-] auxiliary soldiers from Fort Sophia.

The auxiliary soldiers in Harland's territory train for two to three months every year. The core backbone is older veterans. The most training they do is to operate heavy trebuchets to launch stone bombs according to the shooting table.

If it's a field battle, the auxiliary soldiers in Harland's territory are very average in combat effectiveness, and they can't even beat the noble private army.But in defensive battles, this auxiliary team can play a key role.

The first squadron of the second brigade was stationed at Iron Mountain Fort, and the squadron leader was Perrin, a veteran of Harland's territory.He is a professional who was promoted in the same group as Jennings, and his talent is also very good. He has worked hard in Harland's territory for more than ten years. Last year, he was promoted to the deputy captain of the second team, and his professional level was also promoted to the fourth level.

Iron Mountain Fort is the only iron ore producing area in the Harland Territory. There are many secret-related units in the castle. Basically, half of the territory's military production departments are concentrated in Iron Mountain Fort.

For this reason, although Iron Mountain Fort has fewer troops, its combat effectiveness is very strong.

Although there are only 160 people in the first squadron of the second brigade, there are eight professional officers and 120 soldiers who have been in the army for more than five years. All the veterans wear ogre leather armor, and there are six archers above the third rank. Also equipped with sixty scorching ray guns.

The combat effectiveness of this squadron is comparable to that of the No. [-] Squadron, the strongest infantry in the Harland Territory.

There are more than 200 secret agents protecting the military factory, and their establishment is under the responsibility of the intelligence department.

The personnel of the intelligence department are regarded as second-line armed personnel in the territory of Harland, and the main members are not only recruited from the society, but also selected from the army.Especially the manpower in the operation department is carefully selected, and the combat effectiveness is not weak.

It's just that the personnel of the intelligence department are better at fighting alone, subduing their opponents, and they don't have much experience to use when encountering tragic positional battles.

If it weren't for the sudden change in the situation, Li Cha would also be reluctant to send the intelligence personnel who have been trained for many years to the cruel front line to fight desperately with the orcs.

But the situation has developed here, and every strength is crucial.

After defending the Pratos Canyon, Richard didn't need to draw troops from the front line.The pressure on the front line is already heavy. Once troops are withdrawn from the front line, it may cause a global collapse.

The most urgent task is to concentrate superior forces to break the balance.

Under the command of Soros, the eastern region of Harland has cut off half of the orc army's road. William and Soros joined forces to encircle and wipe out this group of enemies.

In the Prato fortress group in the west, the orcs have the upper hand. Once the orc army captures the defense line and flanks the Harland collar, it will cause a complete passiveness to the northern defense line.

After the reinforcements entered the Platos Fortress, Perrin immediately shouted, "Is Captain Bock here?"

"The captain died in battle this afternoon."

Hearing this, Perrin was shocked, and had an intuitive understanding of the cruelty of war.

In just one and a half days after the orcs attacked the city, the supreme commander was killed in the city.

"Who is the commander in the castle now?"

"It's Captain Lothar."

"Where is Captain Lothar?"

"Captain Lothar is in Castle No. [-], and has been cut off by the orcs, and may fall at any time."

The Platos fortress complex has a total of nine fortresses, forming three lines of defense.

When Perrin led the reinforcements to arrive, the five forts No. [-], No. [-], No. [-], No. [-], and No. [-] were all lost.

Bok, the captain of the Ninth Brigade of the Northern Legion, died in battle, and the deputy captain Lothar was besieged in the No. [-] fortress, and he might be surrounded and wiped out at any time.

Now the only complete line of defense left is the third line, and the defenders are mainly soldiers from Baron Sharp's department.

These soldiers are all locals. Although their combat effectiveness is weaker than that of the Northern Legion soldiers, they have a strong will to fight and have no plans to retreat.

Hearing the soldier's answer, Perrin said decisively: "Since Captain Bock died in battle, from now on, I am the commander of Platos Castle. Now I order to dispatch a squadron of auxiliary soldiers and send the wounded soldiers to In the rear, the scattered soldiers immediately reorganized and were ready to go into battle at any time.

As long as we survive tonight, [-] reinforcements from Barony Soros will arrive tomorrow.In the next few days, there will be reinforcements intermittently, and seven days later, the powerful cavalry regiment of the Knight Academy will come for reinforcements.

As long as we have confidence, we will be able to block the orcs in the northern part of the Platos Mountains and keep our homeland. "

Perrin entered Platos' last line of defense at night, and immediately deployed reinforcements at the forefront without resting.

Castle No. [-] was the focus of the third line of defense, and Perrin directly ordered the first squadron of the second brigade to garrison it.

Castle No. [-] had a dangerous terrain, and as many as six heavy-duty trebuchets were installed. Perrin arranged for Harland to lead [-] trebuchet operators to station inside.

Castle No. [-] is the closest to the rear and has the least defensive pressure. It is the place where intelligence personnel and reorganized troops are stationed.

In order to find out how many soldiers he had, Perrin sent several staff officers to count the troops overnight.

Looking at the information sent by the staff before dawn, Perrin's mood suddenly became extremely bad.

"In just one and a half days, we collected 460 corpses and 630 wounded soldiers, of which more than 300 were seriously wounded. This statistic does not include missing persons, nor does it include the defenders of Fort No. [-].

In other words, there were 300 soldiers on the Pratos front, not counting the defenders of Fortress No. 400. After fighting for a day and a half, there were only more than [-] regular troops, [-] noble private troops, and [-] auxiliary soldiers. "

Seeing the statistics, Perrin secretly calculated.If the orc does not weaken the attack strength, the reinforcements he brings can consume up to one day.

Perrin seized the time to take a nap, and the sun gradually revealed the horizon.

Before the soldiers had breakfast, the orcs walked out of the fourth, fifth, and sixth fortresses, organized their attack formation, and began to attack the last line of defense of the Platos fortress group.

Fort No. [-] was built in the middle of the canyon.

Only three walls were built in this castle, the front is about 200 meters long, and the east and west sides add up to more than 130 meters until it is in line with the cliff.

There is no city wall on the south side of Fortress No. [-], and some military barracks were built.

The Prato fortress group is completely a military fortress, there are not many people living nearby, and the civilians are relatively far away.

In the middle of Fortress No. [-], there is a flood discharge channel washed by rainwater. If there is a flood season, a water gate is set up in the middle of the castle, and there is a water village behind it.

During the dry season, only one wooden door was erected.This wooden door was regarded as the defensive weakness of Fortress No. [-].

The flood discharge channel is 16 meters wide and [-] meters deep, relying on wooden doors and wooden fences, it cannot stop the orcs for too long.Relying on the one and a half days won by the two front lines of defense, the defenders of Fort No. [-] blocked most of the flood discharge canal.

After the orcs adjusted their formation, they focused their attack on the flood discharge channel. In just one or two minutes, the orc army dispatched four echelons to launch an attack along the flood discharge channel.

The flood discharge channel was only a dozen meters wide, and the orcs couldn't form a formation at all in such a narrow terrain.

Even if an echelon sends one or two squadrons, they are densely packed into a group.

Seeing this scene, Perrin immediately ordered the trebuchets in Castle No. [-] to fire stone bombs, and then ordered the defenders of Castle No. [-] not to spare alchemy bombs.

Archer, scorching ray gunner hunts down key orc personnel.

With the waving of the command flag, the trebuchet operator in Castle No. [-] cut the rope and began to throw stone bombs.

Although the auxiliary soldiers in the Harland territory are not good at field combat, they are very experienced in manipulating trebuchets. Their training also focuses on manipulating trebuchets, which is equivalent to a weakened version of artillery.

The same trebuchet, in the hands of experienced soldiers, can cause extraordinary damage.

In the first round only, two of the six stone bullets hit the orc formation, killing or wounding seven or eight orc soldiers in an instant, causing considerable chaos.

Although the firing speed of the trebuchet was slow, it was like a reminder.

With each throw, one or two stone bullets hit the orcs.

The orcs were squeezed into the narrow flood channel and could not dodge at all.

Seeing this scene, the orc commander went crazy, constantly urging the orc to speed up and rush past the range of the catapult.

The heavy trebuchet is a projectile weapon and cannot kill people who are relatively close.According to the shooting table in Harland's territory, the range of the heavy trebuchet varies with the weight of the stone bullet, and it is about 400 to 400 meters.More than [-] meters, the falling point of the stone bomb is uncontrollable and very scattered.

Within 100 meters, it is difficult for heavy trebuchets to hit enemy personnel.Unless the counterweight is replaced, or a non-standard stone bullet is used.

But in this way, the landing point can only be controlled by experience, and it is particularly troublesome during the battle.

In the tactics of the soldiers in Harland's territory, after entering 100 meters, killing and injuring the enemy mainly relied on alchemy bombs and bows and arrows.

The first echelon of orcs had just broken through the interception of the trebuchet, and was attacked by an alchemy bomb.

Twenty or thirty alchemy bombs were thrown over in an instant, exploding over the orc squadron, and scattered shrapnel swept over, killing and injuring a large number of people in an instant.

Because it was too close, this squadron suffered more than half of the casualties immediately.

The casualties of being hit by the trebuchet were heavy, and they were attacked by the alchemy bomb, which broke the will of the orc in an instant.Let the orcs in the first echelon retreat.

Normally, most of the orcs retreating will collapse in all directions.But the orcs were in the flood canal, and there was no room for them to collapse.

The retreating orcs huddled with the second echelon, causing great confusion.

The defenders of Fort No. [-] seized the opportunity and fired stone bombs continuously.

The stone bullets fell into the dense orc formation, and the huge kinetic energy instantly smashed the orcs into meatloaf.The stone bullets that fell to the ground continued to roll, breaking both of the orc's legs.

The orc who fell was very pitiful. He was trampled on by his panicked companions and uttered miserable cries.These cries made the orcs panic even more.

The orcs originally planned to use the flood discharge canal to conquer Fort No. [-] in one fell swoop, but they did not expect that the human long-range projection power would be so powerful. Before they got close to the city wall, the four attacking echelons had completely collapsed, losing more than ten professionals and more than five hundred soldiers.

(End of this chapter)