I reforged the glory of the magic ring in Middle-earth

Chapter 129: Capture of the River Valley Town Ruins
The smoke of Raven Ridge had not yet cleared, but the Red Lion Legion had already sounded the horn sounding towards Riverdale.

While Latan and his men were attacking Raven Ridge, on the Tanes side, Jearian led the main force of the Red Lion Legion, and together with Thorin, Dain's dwarf army and Bard's Lake Town Guard, they arrived not far from the outskirts of the ruins of Valley Town.

Tanes did not bring the Storm Legion with him this time, but left them in Long Lake Town just in case.

After all, Bard brought out about half of the Changhu Town guards, and he couldn't let the Changhu Town defense force be empty.

Who knows if an orc will suddenly appear from another direction.

Currently, only Millicent remained with Tanith, while Bernard and Aegon also stayed in Lake-town. The former was worried about the Storm Legion who wanted to join Tanith in attacking the ruins of Dale-town, while the latter was resting in Lake-town's tallest clock tower, fearing that Smaug would suddenly fly out of the Lonely Mountain and destroy Lake-town.

Jellian approached Tanes and said, "Lord Tanes, regarding the attack on the ruins of Riverdale, I would like to ask that you and Lady Millicent not take any action. Simply stay behind. The Red Lions will personally promote the name of the Golden Tree for you and General Latarn."

Tanes was slightly stunned, then nodded: "Of course."

When Millicent saw that Tanes agreed, she naturally agreed as well.

Thorin approached and looked at Tanes and Jellian. "The scouts are back. The gap on the west side of the city wall is the widest, but the goblins have blocked it with rubble. So, let's follow our previous agreement. Tanes, you guys will launch a feint attack at the main gate of the Riverdale ruins to draw the goblins' attention, while Dain and I will break through the wall from the west."

"Feint?" Jeremiah laughed hoarsely, "The Red Lion never feints."

When Thorin and Dain separated from the marching group and led the dwarf army to advance westwards towards Dale Town, Jeremiah stood on the mound outside the southern part of the ruins of Dale Town, his eyes sweeping over the ruins occupied by goblins not far away.

At the gap in the broken city wall, rubble and rotten wood piled up like a mountain, and gray-green figures could be vaguely seen moving.

There were countless goblins, with foul-smelling mucus dripping from their dirty fangs, and the short blades hanging at their waists reflected cold light in the polluted air.

The goblins were now like a swarm of enraged poisonous bees, becoming restless due to the approach of the Red Lion Legion.

Jie Lian raised a withered finger and pointed at the collapsed south gate of River Valley Town. His hoarse voice was filled with murderous intent as he shouted, "Load kerosene and adjust the firing angle."

Ten catapults slowly raised their capstans to the sound of horns from the Latan soldiers. The clicking sound of chains and gears was like the grinding of teeth of a giant beast.

Inside the ammunition bag, red grease sloshed in a clay jar. This was the secret kerosene that the Red Lion Legion once used to resist the spread of scarlet corruption.

But to put it bluntly, it is actually an oversized Red Lion Flame Pot that can be launched by a catapult.

The Latan soldier in charge of igniting the fire rubbed his palm across the flint, and sparks jumped into the oil-soaked hemp rope, instantly igniting the fuse.

"put!"

The moment the noose broke, ten kerosene cans streaked across the sky, trailing red flames and falling towards the ruins like meteors.

The first one hit the gap in the city wall. The roar of the exploding pottery shattered the silence of the ruins of River Valley Town. The red fire wave drilled into the cellar where the goblins were hiding along the cracks in the stone like a poisonous snake.

The goblins' screams erupted from the ground, and their charred limbs crawled out of the cave with flames, only to be extinguished by a second kerosene can.

The abandoned well in the center of the square became the core of purgatory. Flames fell along the well wall into the ground, roasting the goblins curled up inside into curled up charcoal.

Thick smoke, carrying a pungent burnt smell, rose into the sky, dyeing the entire sky above the ruins of River Valley Town a dirty gray-yellow.

Then the goblins rioted.

It was not because they were not afraid of the attack just launched by the Red Lion Legion, but because they discovered that there were two humans with very familiar clothes in front of the Red Lion Legion.

When the dwarves broke into their underground kingdom, these two humans were also present. They knew the dwarves who killed their king, and they also killed many of their compatriots while escaping!
Then anger overcame fear.

"Revenge for the King!!!"

Gray-green waves gushed out from the gap in the city wall, and the goblins' hunched bodies were distorted like ghosts in the dim sunlight.

The pain of the burns and the hatred for Tanes drove them completely crazy. They swung their rusty short blades wildly and screamed as they pounced on the Red Lion Legion.

What a bunch of idiots, they actually dared to come out from behind the cover in groups.

"Crossbow, three shots!"

Jie Lian sneered and gave an order as cold as iron.

Twenty crossbow carts tightened their tendon strings at the same time, and heavy arrows as thick as arms whizzed out amid the vibration of the mechanism.

The arrows pierced the chests of the goblins in the front row, and with the remaining force, they pierced into the heads of their counterparts in the back, impaling dozens of corpses like skewers on the scorched earth where the kerosene was still burning, adding fuel to the flames.

The second and third waves of arrows followed closely, picking off the gaps between the goblin groups' charges and tearing their formation into pieces.

Limbs and internal organs spread out a sticky blood carpet on the wasteland, but more goblins still came stepping on the corpses of their compatriots, with only the hunger for revenge and killing in their cloudy eyes.

"Shield wall, advance!"

Jerry gave the order again.

The Red Lion soldiers in the front row roared in unison, and the tower shields slammed together to form an impenetrable metal wall. The spears protruding from the gaps in the shields gleamed coldly, like the fangs of a giant beast.

The goblins' daggers struck the shields, and before the sparks died down, the spear tips had already pierced their throats precisely.

The soldiers in the back row raised their Red Lion Flame Pots high above their heads. The pots blazed with a hissing sound, then arced and hurled them towards the goblins outside the shield wall. The moment the flames exploded, the goblin charging formation was burned into a scattered ant swarm.

In the thick, smelly smoke, the Red Lion Legion's boots stepped on the embers and moved forward steadily. The gray-green wave of goblins could not stop the advance of this red flame army.

Soon, the gap in the city wall was within reach.

"Charge the car!"

Five iron-clad battering rams were pushed out of the formation by the five goblin knights, and the pointed cones on the front end glowed dark red in the surrounding firelight.

The winch turned, the chain straightened, and the battering ram crashed into the rubble roadblock hastily built by the goblins with a roar of inertia.

Rotten wood and rocks cracked and flew under the iron spikes, and the goblins hiding behind them were crushed into meat paste by the battering ram before they could even raise their weapons.

A few minutes earlier, just as the goblin knights pushed the battering ram to the city gate, three huge figures with silver manes and black bodies suddenly rose from the formation of the Red Lion Legion.

The Lion Guard's roars resonated like thunder across the wasteland, their massive bodies shattered into three afterimages as they charged. They didn't even need to clear the way for the vehicles; their hind legs, their muscles bulging and knotted, the massive machete on their right forelimbs flashing with a cold light, they leaped over the city wall in a single bound.

The first lion guard leaped towards the battlement, its claws digging into the cracks in the stone as the machete strapped to its forelimbs swung out a half-moon. Four goblins hiding behind the battlements were severed along with the masonry in front of them.

While their upper bodies were still spinning in the air, the second Lion Guard had already leaped into the inner wall, stepping on the collapsed masonry. Blade flashes swept across the square like a silver storm, instantly transforming the gathered goblins into fountains of flesh and blood.

After leaping into the ruins of River Valley Town, the third Lion Guard rushed straight to the tower near the city gate that was covered with goblins. They were constantly drawing their short bows and shooting arrows at the huge body of the Goblin Knight.

The Lion Guard's massive body actually knocked down the tower's base, which had been worn away by more than a hundred years. Rotten wood and broken goblin limbs flew like rain in the dust of bricks and tiles.

"Don't be stupid and fight these beasts hand to hand! Shoot, understand! Shoo--"

The roar of the goblin king's guard who had once talked to Azog suddenly stopped. The fangs of the first lion guard had already broken its spine, and the machete chopped off the goblins who were trying to block it.

As the blade of the first lion guard rolled into the floor tiles, carrying the goblin's broken bones, the second one leaped onto the roof of an abandoned tavern with incredible agility.

It swooped down from the eaves, its silver lion mane fluttering like flowing silver, and the machete on its right forelimb swept across with the momentum of its fall, flattening seven or eight goblins who had just drawn their short bows along with the beams under their feet, and the broken limbs and internal organs were scattered like harvested straw.

At this time, the third lion guard shook his huge lion head, stood up again from the ruins of the tower, looked around and roared in dissatisfaction.

Because almost all the goblins nearby were killed by its other two compatriots, and the remaining goblins were still being slaughtered by the other lion guards like hunting.

Back to the present, when the gate of the Valley Town ruins was blasted open by the battering ram, the Red Lion Knights, who had been prepared for a long time, pulled the reins, and their horses neighed and leaped over the ruins.

The Red Lion Knights were clad in red armor, their broad-headed spears held high like a forest, and their warhorses' iron hooves crushed any goblins that dared to block their way.

The goblin's madness finally collapsed before the torrent of steel.

"Three people in a team, clear out every street, leaving no one alive."

At Jerry's command, the Red Lion Knights split into dozens of red columns, interspersed and divided in a triangular formation. The spear tips plucked away the gray-green bodies, and the horses' hooves trampled the fleeing people into mud.

The Red Lion Knight's warhorse crushed the cover of the roadside cellar with its iron hooves, and its spear pierced the goblin huddled behind it.

Another guard of the Goblin King tried to regroup his fleeing compatriots, but was shot through the throat by an arrow from the Red Lion Knight while on his horse.

As the Latan soldiers entered the valley town, flames spread among the ruins. They forced out the goblins hiding behind the ruins, and the swords in their hands cut across their necks like harvesting ears of wheat.

The sword and shield warriors kicked open the broken door of the tavern and fired a burst of crossbow fire, nailing the goblins between the beams and pillars to the moldy wall.

The Latan soldiers also accurately threw the fire pot into every dry well. In the exploding flames, the goblins' charred limbs curled up like grilled shrimps and fell to the bottom of the dry well.

When the Red Lion Legion, under the command of Jerry, broke in directly from the south gate, the dwarves also encountered an active attack from the goblins on the west side of the ruins of Valley Town.

After all, they hated the dwarves who followed the executioner when the king died more than the two humans, Tanes and Millicent.

When the dwarf army just appeared on the west side of Valley Town and the formation had not yet been formed, the goblins who discovered the dwarf army burst into resentful roars and became extremely brutal. Then, seemingly endless goblins poured out from the gap in the west wall.

The dwarf soldiers who were almost in formation saw this scene, their pupils suddenly contracted, but not a single dwarf retreated in panic.

The shield bearers in the front row slammed their tower shields, which were as tall as themselves, into the ground. Their iron boots crushed the ice and snow on the ground, and the shield wall suddenly closed together amid Dain's loud shouts.

Amidst the flying dust and snow, the tip of the spear had already peeked out from the gap in the shield, emitting a cold light.

"Wow! These guys are even more enthusiastic than the drunks at our party!"

Dain's laughter drowned out the goblin's screams. He swung his war hammer and smashed a leaping goblin into a meat pie in mid-air, and dark blood splattered on his shoulder armor.

He even had the leisure to turn around and tease Thorin loudly: "Thorin! Are they planning to use your bones as teething sticks?"

Thorin was holding the Frozen Shell Axe at this time. He stomped the ground with frost to freeze all the goblins rushing towards him. Then these newly formed ice sculptures were smashed by the weapons of the surrounding dwarf soldiers.

He didn't really want to pay attention to Dain, his relative who was a bit noisy on the battlefield, but he couldn't ignore him, so he could only helplessly reply loudly: "Mind your own warhammer, Dain."

No matter how hard the goblins attacked, the dwarf soldiers' formation remained as steady as a reef separating the waves.

Fili and Kili, two skilled Beast Prayers, led hundreds of War Sheep Riders in a swift flank charge into the breach in the western wall. Under the cover of the War Sheep Riders, the dwarf brothers unleashed their Beast Prayers' claws, following the cracks in the wall until the breach was wide enough for the dwarf army to enter.

On Thorin's side, the goblin corpses piled up in front of the shield wall, but they were unable to shake it at all.

Dain crushed a goblin's head, pointed his hammer at the breach in the wall made by Fili and Kili, and shouted, "Son of Durin! Show these ugly creatures what a dwarf's return gift is!"

At noon, the ruins of River Valley Town fell silent.

On the charred city wall, the flag of the Golden Tree and the battle flag of the Red Lion slowly rose in the smoke.

Jelian stepped on a charred goblin head and swept his eyes across the devastated battlefield.

At this time, the soldiers of the Red Lion Legion were using the tips of their swords to push away the pile of corpses, ensuring that no greenskins would escape and pretend to be dead to counterattack.

The dwarves saw the actions of the Red Lion Legion soldiers and followed suit, looking for those who had escaped the net.

Bard and the guards of Changhu Town, who had been waiting in the back for a long time and thought they could help, looked at the soldiers of the Red Lion Legion with eyes full of respect and fear, secretly swallowing their saliva in shock at the other party.

Then, under Bard's order, the guards of Long Lake Town quickly joined in the battlefield cleanup work, cooperating with the soldiers of the Red Lion Legion and the dwarf soldiers to find the goblin survivors hiding in the dark corners of Valley Town.

After entering the Valley Town, Tanes couldn't help but admire the strength of the Red Lion Legion.

Although the enemy were just weak goblins and the town they occupied was almost abandoned, the neat and efficient cooperation between them still opened Tanes' eyes.

After all, when he was at the border, he had never seen so many Red Lion Legions gathered together to fight.

Jellian returned to Tanes and said respectfully, "I have fulfilled your mission, Lord Tanes."

Tanes smiled and patted the other man's shoulder. "Thank you for your hard work, Jellian. If you really think Tanes is hard to pronounce, you can still call me the Fader as before."

Then Tanes looked towards the Lonely Mountain, his eyes seeming to penetrate the thick mountain walls, searching for the evil dragon. "But we can't relax yet, Jerion. The goblins are just making a small fuss, and the real war has just begun."

(End of this chapter)