Knight Lord: Start with Daily Intelligence.

Chapter 229: Victory Strategy Blitzkrieg

Chapter 229: Strategies for Victory: Blitzkrieg

Although the war with the Green Dragon lasted for more than half a year, the final decisive battle came much more quickly than Su Li expected.

Knight Orstein's report means that the decisive battle will begin as early as tomorrow morning.

Su Li really wanted to strangle the blasphemous Grand Duke of the Surander Province. If he had not lost his bottom line in his political struggle and leaked the information about the Hessen Territory to the Green Dragon, the decisive battle would not have been so hasty.

But now that things have come to this and the decisive battle is about to break out, he has no complaints.

After Marshal Orstein reported on the monsters' advance, Su Li asked, "What are your plans for tomorrow's decisive battle? The Green Dragon's army is everywhere, and their size is probably nearly ten times ours. What plans do we have to ensure victory?"

The Sun Goddess is the goddess of strategy and war, the patron of officers and tacticians, and the faith of those who rely on the art of command and the science of war. Therefore, her followers usually only attack when they are sure that both strategy and tactics have been properly analyzed and both controllable and uncontrollable factors are in their favor.

If this were a follower of Redma or Yurik, they would have simply rushed out with their troops in the face of a decisive battle.

But it is obvious that the knights of the territory would plan tactics before the battle to help their side gain an overwhelming advantage. Otherwise, it would be too difficult for a mere 5000-man army to defeat an army of tens of thousands.

As the saying goes, if there are ten, surround them; if there are five, attack them. The monsters' advantage in army size must be eliminated by relying on tactical advantages.

As the marshal, Orstein was the center of everyone's attention. He immediately stood up and said solemnly, "For this decisive battle, we will still adopt the tactic of defensive counterattack."

Without waiting for others to frown and question, he decisively walked to the sand table and explained to everyone: "But this defensive counterattack is not a passive defense. We are defending the city, not defending!"

Defend the city without defending it?

What does it mean?
Everyone focused their attention on the sand table that Orstein pointed to with a wooden pole. This sand table was a model of the hills, rivers, cities, fortresses, routes, etc. around Hesseburg, piled up with sand, clay, wood, bamboo sticks, etc. in strict accordance with a certain proportion.

Basically, by commanding from this sand table, the officers and tacticians of the Goddess of the Fiery Sun can accurately match the tactical deployment to every square meter on the battlefield.

At this time, in the center of the sand table, the tall castle and the majestic city walls formed a solid defense line, overlooking the vast plains in the east, and the green arrows representing the green dragon's claws were painted all over the mountains in the east, south, and north directions.

The golden models representing the Knights' Legion gathered in the castle, their sharp swords pointing to the sky, their shields faintly shining with light. They held their banners high, looking majestic, as if they could leap out of the castle at any time and pierce the models representing the monsters.

The Knights were born to attack. Passive defense is not only not their style, it will also greatly limit their combat effectiveness.

So Su Li understood Orstein's desire to take the initiative to attack, but he really didn't understand the connotation of his tactical deployment. What does it mean to defend the city without defending?

"My Marshal, what do you mean by this tactic? Does it mean that we have to fight a field battle with the green dragon's minions with our backs against the city walls?"

The army of just a few thousand would probably be overwhelmed by the monsters. The so-called attack when your strength is five times that of the enemy means that you can take the initiative to attack and use your strength advantage to defeat the enemy.

If they relied on the city walls for passive defense, a squadron of phalanxes would face the siege of five or six monster squadrons, which was almost like a squadron against an entire legion. The huge numerical advantage was enough for the monsters to easily tear the soldiers of this legion apart.

Orstein shook his head decisively, pointed his command staff at the castle gate, and said, "We are going to fight the monsters in the field, but we won't have our backs against the city walls, but against the city gates!"

To be honest, Orstein's qualifications were much higher than others, even Su Li was confused when he heard it.

As a knight chosen by God, his understanding of the art of war has surpassed that of ordinary people, reaching the level of applying it skillfully and keeping it in mind.

Except for Hildurde who was very calm and stood aside with his arms folded, Tiberus and Constantine seemed to have been inspired, while the rest were confused.

Seeing this, Orlstein didn't mince words and spoke directly, "Based on my experience traveling throughout the Old World during my time with the Knights of the Flaming Sun, studying and learning from every human nation their tactics and strategies, I learned that when defending a city, it's better to have more gates than fewer, and to keep them open rather than closed. Having many gates open allows us to attack them at the slightest opportunity, using this as a diversionary tactic to keep the enemy at ease."

"It means that when defending a city, the more gates the better. And don't keep them tightly shut; they should be wide open. Once we seize the opportunity, we must strike decisively, using our superior numbers to defeat the weak, using our strength to defeat the weak, crushing a weak enemy unit in one fell swoop. This will allow us to effectively cut off a finger. This way, the enemy can only passively defend, while our main force can calmly choose where to strike, repeatedly destroying parts of the enemy. As this weakens, the enemy is doomed to defeat."

The core of this tactic is that it is better to break one finger than to hurt ten fingers.

The cavalry corps has advantages in combat power and mobility. Once it finds an enemy corps with weak combat power, it can take the initiative to attack, thus forming a local situation of having more troops against fewer. Relying on the knights' fierce combat power and sophisticated armaments, it can completely destroy the enemy's weak corps at only a small cost.

Then they fought and retreated quickly, defeated the enemy with lightning speed, and then quickly retreated into the city to rest and wait for the next opportunity.

Orstein said calmly, "I've named this tactic 'Blitzkrieg'. Although strategically we're on the defensive and the Green Dragon Legion is on the offensive, tactically we must seize the initiative!"

Blitzkrieg, not lightning war, is a summary of the Empire's military theory in terms of tactics.

Orlstein was very confident in this, a testament to his pride in being born into the Order of the Flaming Sun. It was well known that armies led by the Order were undoubtedly formidable, able to outmaneuver their opponents through cunning, leadership, and strategic foresight, securing victory before the actual battle even began.

An important guarantee for implementing this tactic is that the defenses of the city gates and walls are indestructible, so that even if the city gates are open, the enemy cannot break in.

This depends on the dwarves' advanced engineering level and military defense facilities.

The gates of Hessen City and Hessen Castle are not the kind of bare gates that ordinary people imagine, the kind that people can enter and exit directly.

On the contrary, each city gate is a complete group of fortifications, known as the Vauban Fortifications by the dwarves. This is a defense system invented by the legendary dwarf Vauban, with castles, walls and towers lined up one after another and interdependent.

Specifically, it is very similar to the oriental 瓮城, that is, each city gate can actually be regarded as a small city. By building a small city outside the city gate, its height is the same as that of the big city, and it is connected to the city wall to become a 铛城.

If the main gate faces south, you need to attack from the small gate of the city wall first. This small gate is definitely not facing south, and it is either on the west or east side of the city wall. After the monsters enter the city wall, they need to turn around before continuing to attack the main gate of the city wall. However, when attacking the city, you will be attacked by a large number of defenders from behind and on the left and right walls.

Especially when the defenders are dwarves, they are more inclined to open the city gates, attract the enemy to fight with their dwarf shield formation under the city gates, and then let their own musketeers stand on the city wall and attack the enemy troops rushing towards the main gate from the rear.

The more heavily defended the city, the more effective this tactic is, because the city walls are high and the moats are deep, making them almost impossible to fill up. Even if these green dragon minions were exhausted to death, they would not be able to fill up the Blackwater River and the Brienne River.

The 16-meter-high city wall is like an insurmountable natural moat!
How magnificent is the 16-meter-high city wall? It is basically equivalent to the height of a five-story building. People with acrophobia cannot stand steadily when looking down from above. If they fall down, they can basically say goodbye to this world.

If a monster rushed to attack without carefully prepared siege equipment, even a ladder wouldn't reach halfway up the wall. Ordinary bamboo and wooden ladders were only 3 to 5 meters high, while a dwarven steel ladder was only 3 to 10 meters. It would be impossible to construct a 16-meter ladder using only simple wood. Complex equipment and specialized siege equipment were required to construct a 16-meter ladder or siege rampart, allowing the monster to scale a 16-meter wall.

But preparing siege weapons of this level would make the defenders very happy. With the city gates open, the defenders would harass the city day and night, making it impossible for the monsters to even gain a foothold under the city walls. They would have to withdraw more than ten miles to set up camp in order to stabilize their position.

Therefore, the wide-open city gates could be said to be both a preparation for Orstein's offensive tactics and a bait and trap he had set up specifically for the monsters, in order to attract them to attack the city wall.

After the blitzkrieg tactics were clarified, Su Li asked with concern, "Then how many troops can we mobilize for the decisive battle?"

"Regarding the defensive and offensive forces, how do you plan to deploy them?"

Orstein immediately explained in detail, "Our offensive this time will be based entirely on elite knight corps, including the Knights of the Corona, the Knights of the Scarlet Night, the Demi-Griffin Knights of the Vengeful Sun, and the elite knights of the territory, totaling 1100 men."

The distribution of elite knights in the territory is quite complex. It can be said that there are far more than 1100 people, or it can be said that there are less than half of this number.

The main reason lies in how to view the members of the Knights of the Corona. After defeating the Chosen of Khorne in the Hessen Territory and becoming famous, it has indeed attracted a large number of believers of the Sun Goddess to join.

For example, dozens of members of the Flame Sun Knights, active in the Border Princes' Territory alone, have come to the Hessen Territory, but they prefer to join the Corona Knights. Although the Corona Knights are a subsidiary of the Flame Sun Knights, they are also fully organized into the Flame Sun Knights, a legitimate branch of the regular army! It can be understood as a designation similar to the Second Battalion of the Wuwei Army's Vanguard.

Therefore, they possessed all the characteristics of the Flaming Sun Knights. This knightly order was extremely wealthy, and most of the tinder rabbit meat sold in Hesse Territory alone was bought by them.

They even directly reserved the storm eel that Su Li had just caught, priced at 3 gold crowns per catty. Even a smaller storm eel could be easily sold for nearly 100 gold crowns. If it was the one that Su Li had worked so hard to catch, it would be even more amazing. The high price of 300 gold crowns was already a high price that secular nobles were unwilling to pay.

This heavy investment has also led to their strength constantly expanding with the help of various opportunities in the territory. Coupled with the scattered members of the Flame Sun Knights they have absorbed, they now have more than 200 elite knights, making them the undisputed largest knight order in the territory.

In addition, they have 20 to 300 reserve members of the Knights Templar. These people are not at the level of armed squires, but knight-errants who are preparing to take the examination to join the order. Many of them are descendants of the kingdom's knights. They gather from all directions and have the strength of at least an apprentice knight.

Therefore, apart from the members of the Flame Sun Knights and the Fallen Wolf Mercenary Group, the number of elite knights directly under the Hessen Territory is far from reaching thousands.

But if these church knights and the cavalry of the free militia are added, the elite knights that Hesse can mobilize may even reach thousands.

In any world, a charging cavalry of thousands of gleaming heavy armor is a mighty and invincible military force.

Especially with the addition of a large number of dwarves to the territory, sophisticated armor may account for 6% or even more than 8% of them. Although the entire army is not yet well-equipped, it is already a crushing advantage over monsters.

They were divided into about 20 assault arrays or battle groups, launching attacks one after another. I'm afraid that just a few waves of attacks would be enough to destroy an entire army of monsters before the monsters could react.

Even if they were commanded by an outstanding commander and tactician, these cavalry regiments could be divided into three shock waves on the left, center and right, which would ensure that they were fully energetic and could fight continuously for a day and a night. They would also be able to maneuver freely on the battlefield, making the opponent dizzy and unable to launch a counterattack, and could only passively take the beating.

As for the defense, Orlstein continued, "The defending army is divided into two parts. Aside from the Blood Pine Forest Beast Killer Battalion, which is under your direct command and will guard Hesse Castle, we plan to first defend Hesse Town and block the enemy in batches until we can no longer resist, then slowly retreat to Hesse Castle."

"This is also to boost the morale of the defenders. After all, our provincial legion, free militia, and fiefdom troops total nearly 4000 men. If we abandon the city outright, we won't be able to deploy so many defenders, and it will also undermine the morale of the soldiers."

Su Li nodded. He didn't have to consider the morale of the Free Militia, but he had to care about the Provincial Legion.

He has about 500 high-ranking direct attendants, and more than 1500 provincial legions. These 800 people, plus the professional free militia of about people, are his most elite standing army, and their morale must be kept high.

Moreover, relying on the city's resistance would also help buy time for Orstein's main knight force to take the initiative.

After deep thought, Su Li nodded and said, "Then let's follow this tactical deployment. We must defeat the Green Dragon in one fell swoop with absolutely high morale and high fighting spirit!"

As Su Li made the decision, Orstein immediately began to deploy everyone's defensive positions on the sand table. Champions with strong combat capabilities, such as Dogrin, Tiberus, and even Dietrich and Ron, were all assigned to take charge of nodes and key intersections. They would support nearby areas where fighting broke out as quickly as possible whenever necessary.

Even a dwarf ranger carrying a musket and sitting in the square can rush to three or four battlefields in five minutes under this deployment.

With the help of the sand table, the deployment and control capabilities of the Hessen army reached the extreme, even enough to ensure that if a battle broke out on any battlefield, the size of the army would not be too far behind, and more reinforcements could be obtained at any time when the battle was urgent.

After the deployment was completed, Orstein and Hilde led all the knights to divide into two teams and began tactical deduction.

This is one of the favorite activities of the followers of the Sun Goddess Violet. When not in physical training, the followers of the Sun Goddess will conduct extensive military strategic discussions, including the deployment and maneuvering of the legions, the use of terrain, and the deployment of artillery. They will then conduct tactical deductions to improve their command capabilities and combat efficiency.

Legend has it that Violet prepared a special afterlife for her loyal followers who had earned honor in life.

After death, the souls of the faithful enter a majestic hall. Here, they are separated by their ranks of achievement. Commanders find them gathered before a vast sandbox and lifelike miniatures, where they discuss tactics and engage in battle. Souls of former soldiers join the battles among the miniatures.

Those who survive a battle may join the commander's ranks, and even if they die in battle, they are not destroyed. They are just temporarily removed from the game. They can watch the discussion or join another battle.

After the battle, commanders would discuss the events of the campaign, while others would rest and prepare for future events. To these soldiers, this eternal army and eternal war was the most wonderful thing - everything for the perfect army and perfect tactics.

Followers of the Sun Goddess are experts in this area, their greatest expertise being tactical planning and overall deployment, even serving as military advisors to nobles on the battlefield. Sometimes, they directly command squads or entire legions on the battlefield, using their skills and reputation to prevent militias from collapsing, mercenaries from absconding with their pay, or—when a commander is too incompetent—taking command directly.

The noble commander Su Li is best at delegating power. He is very clear about his own abilities. It may be easy for him to lead 5000 elite soldiers to fight 5000 monsters, but it is beyond his ability to lead 5000 elite soldiers to fight a legion of 10000 monsters.

Asking him to lead 3 legions and defeat at least 15 legions, or even 25 to 30 legions, with a ratio of 1:10, is far beyond his ability.

He couldn't even defeat 3 people with 30 men, not to mention the hundreds or thousands of times more difficult and complicated task of using 3 legions to defeat 30 legions.

Fortunately, an excellent monarch does not need to be proficient in everything. The key is to be able to select talented people and leave professional matters to professionals.

He only needs to do a good job of intelligence support, and in the end most of the glory, prestige and fame will fall on him.

So after the knights began to have a heated discussion and serious deduction, Su Li walked out of the conference room surrounded by the Hessen Royal Guard Knights and came to the highest point of the Hessen Castle defense system. The flag of the Bauhinia Family was fluttering above his head.

On the iconic vermilion banner, the emblem of the Bauhinia family is embroidered with gold thread, and a golden hammer and sword are crossed below the Bauhinia flower.

This is the facade of Hesse Castle, a banner made of the silk of the giant spider Anarrek, enchanted with mysterious energy. When it flutters under the witch moon, it makes the whole castle look exceptionally tall, as majestic as if it reaches hundreds of meters into the sky.

But in fact, this castle, including the three-layer defense system, is only more than 50 meters high, far less than the castles of the nobles in the empire, where the walls of a single castle are more than 50 meters high.

But even if it looks hundreds of meters high due to an optical illusion, it is already amazing. The silk of the Anarrek Giant Spider is extremely rare, and ordinary pioneer lords simply cannot have it. Even the nobles who have been passed down for hundreds of years in the empire have to spend a lot of money to buy enough spider silk to make an enchanted banner.

Su Li has the assistance of an intelligence system, and there are only a handful of banners made of the silk of the Anarric giant spider. One is the facade of this territory, one is Su Li's banner, and the remaining four are distributed to various knight orders and legions.

Su Li held the fluttering flag in his hand and looked into the distance. From here he could overlook the vast and fertile plains of the territory covering dozens of miles. In the east, raging flames had been ignited, dyeing a large area of ​​the sky red and illuminating the entire dark night sky in the distance.

It is not known whether the green dragon's minions burned down the farms in the territory or set fire to the pastures and farmland.

But no matter what, after the Green Dragon Legion wreaked havoc, it was inevitable that large areas of prosperous suburbs would turn into dark ghost zones and large areas of farmland would turn into scorched earth.

Fortunately, the territory had been fortified and the crops that were about to mature had been harvested. Even if the monster burned the wheat fields, it only destroyed some wheat seedlings.

Fandral was very heartbroken. He only participated in the deployment and allocation meeting, and decided where to set up a medical station for the nuns of the Church of Dawn. After treating the wounded, he did not participate in the subsequent deductions, but followed Su Li to the highest point of the castle.

"My Lord, this monster's rampage could destroy thousands or even tens of thousands of acres of our fertile land, reducing many farms to ashes."

Su Li took a deep breath and said, "The impact on the territory will not be significant. As long as we defeat this green dragon and focus on development, we can reclaim the destroyed farmland in just a quarter and rebuild all the farms in half a year."

"War is a war without some loss of property. The key is that we must take advantage of this war to inflict heavy damage on the Green Dragon's army, and then bring the flames of war back to the Blood Pine Forest. If we can break into the dragon's nest, we can at least harvest tens of thousands of gold crowns."

At that time, Su Li will not only be able to expand the territory of the Black Forest Territory by hundreds or even thousands of miles into the Blood Pine Forest, but he will also be able to obtain a huge amount of spoils.

This dragon's nest is the descendant of the Emperor Dragon, and its wealth is astonishing. If Su Li takes it all, the Heisen Territory will have no financial pressure for the whole year.

Moreover, after losing the huge military pressure, the territory's military investment can be slightly slowed down, and all the massive resources captured can be invested in the development of the territory. The territory will definitely take off.

(End of this chapter)

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