When the Saint comes, she does not collect food

Chapter 535: Retreat? Or fight?
The snow on the sloping roof fell down and piled up into small snowdrifts under the eaves.

After ten days of intermittent heavy snow, the first sunny day after the snow finally arrived in early 1446.

Icicles hung on the eaves, gleaming and reflecting the dazzling light of snow and sunlight. The falling water droplets made deep holes in the snow.

In the vast white snow, a manor stands in the thick snow like a yellow patch on a white cloth.

The roof was covered with swallowtail flags with the emblems of various families, as well as the red bull-head emblem on a blue background, which was the uniform emblem of the land servants.

The village road, cleared of snow, was bustling with people: soldiers, merchants, knights, and monks, almost filling up the small manor.

The land servants, with spears on their shoulders, wore a tunic over their mail, but they could not help shivering as they patrolled.

The warhorses in the stable exhaled puffs of white steam and shivered, asking the knights to change their horse blankets with their own emblems to prevent them from getting sick.

This is the base of the church army heading east. Fortunately, the civilians in the manor had fled before they arrived, so there was no need to spend much effort to drive the civilians away.

As the commander-in-chief of this army, Count Lionel of Marley stood on the steps of the wooden house, reading the letter in his hand with a sad face.

“…Sir Leanna, Sir Lacunio’s goal for me is to hold the Blago Basin, not to support the attack.

If we send troops to support, it may lead to a surprise attack by the witch Jeanne. Please forgive me for rejecting your request for assistance...

But if you need help, I am ready to take you back and never let those short-haired bandits set foot in the Brago Basin...

As for Mr. Lacunio, I'm sorry, the Shadowless Man discovered that Count Galinon was secretly working with the Holy Sun Army, and His Royal Highness the Prince arrested him and put him in the dungeon...

Currently, several earls and bishops are trying their best to defend him. Lord Lacunio returned to Hotam County the day before yesterday to mediate for them...

I have forwarded your letter to Hotham County, and your reply will probably reach you in 8-12 days..."

"I will run out of food in ten days. What's the use of receiving a letter then?" Ryan couldn't help but curse at the letter.

But after cursing, he felt it was ridiculous again, shook his head with a wry smile and sighed.

Starting from January 1, under the attack of nearly 25 troops, the Salvation Bandits were defeated again and again, giving up an area of ​​about 20 kilometers at once.

Ryanna originally thought that their footing was unstable, and this exploratory attack was successful.

So he immediately sent a letter to the Blago Monastery, saying that the enemy army "had been routed thousands of miles and the gates were wide open."

But what they didn't expect was that from January 1 to February 27, half a month had passed, and they had only advanced less than 2 kilometers, an average of 12 kilometer per day.

4000 old ladies could not even march 1 kilometer a day, and they had war horses and carts!

With repeated reconnaissance and the escape of the defeated soldiers, Ryanna gradually pieced together the real situation from their mouths.

Although these people have their own stories, they can all be summarized as "I encountered elite infantry on the roadside. They are as strong as monsters. I can't defeat them no matter how hard I try."

During the 15 days, the Salvation Army changed its previous habit of concentrated large-scale battles and instead broke up into small-scale ambushes and encounters.

Almost every three or four days a detachment was ambushed, with dozens or hundreds of soldiers killed, or the baggage train was attacked. The knights tried their best to put out the fire but failed to wipe out a single squadron.

The best result was that Count Marley himself led 900 cavalrymen on patrol for four days before he successfully captured a squadron and annihilated and captured two teams of fifty people.

But the price was that the infantry in the rear camp were ambushed, resulting in nearly 400 casualties, and even several days' worth of military rations were burned.

So the soldiers would rather gather on a main road and walk slowly.

4000教会军走完15公里后，人数硬是由4000人变成了不到3000人，而且给养最多再支撑10天！
The main force led by Leonna suffered no losses when they took the King's Road, but they had to collect the defeated soldiers every day, which slowed down their march. At a distance of 10 miles, they gradually began to be unable to move forward. Because of insufficient supplies, they had to send a large number of cavalry to further places to transport food and recruit guards.

Ryan asked himself, has he slacked off? Has he not worked hard?

He knew that his level was not high, so before setting off, he asked Lacunio to draw up a plan and he strictly followed it.

He did not look down on these farmers, and even sought tutoring from Lacunio on the command styles of the two military leaders of the Salvation Army.

The witch Jeanne is good at cavalry warfare and surprise attacks. She often uses streamlined forces to carry out large-scale, high-speed maneuvers to attack the rear, disrupting the command and then dividing and annihilating the enemy.

The demon Horn prefers a decisive battle, that is, after making all preparations, he will directly concentrate his main forces to fight a decisive battle with the enemy's main forces, and the outcome will be decided in one battle.

Both styles have their own advantages and disadvantages, but they are both conventional ways of playing in the empire. There is only a difference in the level of performance, not in the good and the bad.

Ryanna had prepared for both tactics, but he had never seen this kind of mud-rolling style of fighting before. This question was beyond the scope of the topic.

He executed the plan and studied the opponent, but what Ryanna didn't understand was how it turned out like this.

In one direction, the short-haired bandits from Langsander County were definitely outnumbered by them, but after fighting like this, they managed to equalize their numbers.

According to common sense, this was just a tentative attack and one could just leave if they couldn't win.

The problem is that if they want to walk there, it will still take more than ten days!

The supplies have been collected until next year. The people have all fled, and it is still unclear whether the supplies can support their return.

The option of retreat has been eliminated by the Saviors, so we may have no choice but to continue the attack.

But the demon saint grandson seemed to have predicted the future. As soon as he had this thought, six squadrons of more than 3000 infantry gathered at the Laper River camp ten miles away.

The only thing to be thankful for was that in order to ensure that the rear ferry was not lost, the Salvation Army could only dispatch five squadrons of more than 2700 people and three hundred Holy Gun Cavalry.

In terms of the proportion of cavalry and total number, they still have a slight advantage.

Should we continue the attack?

Looking at the thousands of soldiers walking in front of him, Ryan took out a bottle of dwarven liquor from his arms bitterly and poured it into his mouth.

The best option is of course to retreat and try to preserve strength, but if we run away without fighting at this point, the family's honor will be gone.

Whether he can do it is a question of strength, whether he wants to do it is a question of attitude. He doesn't want to be liquidated by the church after the war.

I'm a little sorry for these guards.

"Da da da--"

Horse hooves splashed mud and snow as a team of reconnaissance cavalry came around the corner of the road.

Ryanna knew there was new information and rushed to meet it.

"My Lord, we found a group of short-haired bandits building a pontoon bridge and a fortress on the river bank about 6 miles away from us. What should we do? Should we drive them away?"

Leinna did not answer immediately, but took a big gulp of dwarven liquor: "No need, pass the order down, the soldiers from several nearby garrisons will gather together and fight the bandit army early tomorrow morning."

(End of this chapter)