Warhammer

Stephanie is from Kislev, and of course her name makes her look more like a Bretonnian, but it's almost the same. Her ancestor was a knight of the kingdom who lost faith in his hometown and felt desperate after the victory of the Great War but Bretonnia fell into a state of great division. He was unwilling to follow the Holy Grail Council and continue to uphold the belief in virtue, so he retreated to the mountains to practice seclusion.

So her ancestor, in accordance with the requirements of the Holy Grails, announced that he would give up his ruling power and noble status, and even sold or abandoned all his houses and lands, bought himself a full set of weapons, and recruited a group of landless and homeless farmers, who were then called Bordello, now Manannia, boarded the ship and set off all the way to Kislev, the most severely damaged human country in the Great War, with thousands of miles of desolate and uninhabited land, and Chaos remnants, wild beasts, and thieves swarming one after another.

A powerful knight who came with his own dry food was soon valued by the Tsar. With the melting of the permafrost in Kislev, the world ushered in a climate recovery. Goddess Saraiya, Bear God and other gods bestowed huge divine grace in the last period of time before the gods went into hiding and kept a low profile, allowing the entire Kislev population to recover rapidly. Not only has it surpassed its former peak, but it is still continuing to rise.

Unfortunately, Stephanie's ancestor died too early. If he had continued to fight under the Tsar, perhaps his family would have a place in Kislevgrad or Esungrad today, but this has nothing to do with Stephanie anymore.

As far as she could remember, she was a defeated boyar of Kislev - a feudal lord class that once owned hereditary territories. Compared with the nobles of the empire, they had more power in their own territories. They were also responsible for governing the local areas, provinces, and the army for the Tsar, and were the daughter of a family.

The rest doesn't matter, and Stephanie doesn't mind mentioning it. In short, it's a story about a rebellious girl with chivalrous virtues who left her dilapidated home, picked up the martial arts of her ancestors, and then joined the ranks of mercenaries, living a life on the edge of a knife.

Today, Stephanie is already a very qualified mercenary, but she still cannot avoid some of the little picky traits of a woman.

Stephanie, who had her brown hair tied into a braid and draped behind her, sheathed the machete and said with a little dissatisfaction: "I don't like beastmen. I hate beastmen."

"They're always...tsk, hairy, horned, smelly, repulsive, a bunch of Chaos mutants."

Rodrian did not say a word. This man spent most of his time in silence. Only on the battlefield could both the enemy and our side see how active he was.

"We defeated the greenskins, eliminated the rat infestation, and made the Yankees obedient, so that the undead stayed in the land of the dead. Why can't we get rid of these horned hoofed beasts as well? Even if we load them onto ships and throw them all into the colonies, that would be fine!"

The strong man who was chopping firewood with his bare chest not far away and preparing for tonight laughed heartily. He chopped the axe on the wooden stake and walked towards Stephanie and Rodrian, taking a piece of cloth to wipe the sweat off his body on the way.

"In the entire Old World, even if we only look at the Empire, there are at least one million Beastmen. In our Kislev, there are nearly 100,000 Beastmen around Ersungrad alone."

"Neither our 'Little Mother' nor His Majesty the Emperor of the Empire would pay for such a large group of beastmen to be sent on a ship to the New World."

"Like bugs, they're everywhere."

Stephanie sneered. She hated beastmen because of an experience she had in the past.

"But they are much more useful than bugs: farming, mining, hunting, herding; workshops, factories, slums, anyway, they are everywhere, hardworking and better than simply using slaves. Oh, yes, there is also slavery."

The sturdy man said with a smile, and walked up to the two of them. Stephanie smelled the strong smell on the other person, perhaps it was the strong smell of the cloth that the sturdy man often used to wipe his sweat, and she couldn't help but step back a few steps to the other side. Rodrian didn't react to this at all, as if he was a thinking statue.

"There seem to be very few beastmen in Estalia. I rarely see these guys in Bilbarri." Stephanie recalled.

"Because most of the beastmen in Estalia usually run to the colonies in the New World through various means, and some even go to open up colonies on their own and establish a beastman colony."

Rodrian suddenly spoke.

"During the Great War, the Beastmen and the Skaven rat infestation almost destroyed the entire South. After the restoration, the Estalia people hated these guys very much. The rat infestation was eliminated and driven away, and some Beastmen who were reformed and left the evil camp were allowed to stay."

"But the Estalia people still hate them very much, so many beastmen choose to go to the New World to find a new life under discrimination. Once they arrive in the New World, they cannot avoid competition with human colonists, which makes the overall atmosphere more discriminatory. The more discrimination there is, the more they want to run away, and the more they run away, the more discrimination there is. That's how it is."

"Why would the Estalia allow them to go to the New World and compete with them?"

Stephanie was puzzled: "Can't we drive them all away and prohibit the beastmen from establishing colonies? If we don't give them ships, how can they get to the New World?"

Rodrian pinched his nose lightly. "That's the problem. The colonies in the New World need a steady supply of labor, which does not conflict with the local human civilians discriminating against the beastmen for stealing their jobs. The New World does not want the beastmen to take control of the colonies themselves, which conflicts with Estalia's desire to find a 'garbage dump' for the beastmen who are very fertile and breed in large numbers."

"But the advantage of the New World for the Beastmen is that there is no extremely powerful ruler like a tsar or emperor. Even though some places are more xenophobic and discriminatory than the Old World, it is still a land of greater freedom and opportunity."

Stephanie thought for a moment, "Very interesting."

"I kind of want to go to the New World and see for myself. Maybe if I'm lucky, I can make a fortune there."

Rodrian raised his eyebrows, causing his scar to twitch.

The man said in a low voice: "I have the same idea. Maybe I can do it later... But for now, I still have to focus on completing the current commission."

"Don't cause any trouble once you enter the forest. People from the Northern Council said that this Beastman tribe is not simple...the power they possess may be stronger than those Beastman colonies."

The mercenary group finally set up their camp, and the equipment and supplies in large and small boxes were properly placed. Rodrian did not dare to relax at all about this mission. This was the largest commission he had received in recent years, and possibly the most risky one. However, as long as he completed this commission, even if he only got half of the reward, he would have the opportunity to implement his big plan.

"New World....."

Rodrian looked toward the north, as if he could see the coastline intertwined with golden and azure colors, and ships with white sails hoisted.

Chapter 157: Sacred Forest

After a short period of leisure, everyone in the Veteran Mercenary Corps went about their business, some doing their work, and some taking a rest.

Their number is not particularly large, and has long been maintained at around 120 people.

With the rapid population growth, a large number of young and strong laborers rejected the factories and chose to join the mercenary adventure group, becoming a war dog or explorer. The size of the Veteran Mercenary Group is actually not large, but the members are carefully selected and recruited by Rodrian, and they have more advantages in ability.

Thanks to the leadership and command abilities of the retired Royal Guards instructor, as well as his attention to detail and his emphasis on safety in handling commissions. He never succumbs to huge profits in uncertain missions, the mercenary group has always had a good reputation and is well-known in various commissions that do not require a large number of mercenaries.

Rodrian himself, apart from his ugly appearance caused by scars, had no other obvious bad habits. He did not indulge in any of the common hobbies among mercenaries, such as drinking, fighting, gambling, prostitution, and addiction to hallucinogenic drugs. He had never even kept a regular lover. Except for necessary outings for procurement and communication, he spent almost all his time in the mercenary group's camp.

After the war, Stephanie had subtly expressed to this captain, who had leadership qualities and charm, in addition to his good looks, that they could take their relationship a step further. Although as the daughter of a declining noble family, she could be considered to have inherited the family tradition, but a woman who could leave Kislev and go out of her home to join the mercenary business would naturally not be a shy lady. However, Rodrian decisively rejected the admiration of his subordinates, so this relationship ended before it even began.

The two still have a superior-subordinate and close comrade-in-arms relationship.

The bonfire was burning, the firewood was crackling, and Rodrian sat by the bonfire to keep watch, thinking about the current commission in his mind.

The Bilbarians paid a high price, and before the royal government and city-state councils could take action, the free mercenaries smelled the blood and rushed to Estalia, trying to make a fortune from this chaos.

Rodrian's team was a step late. They rested in Marienburg for a while, while he returned alone to Altdorf, where the Empire had been completely stabilized and its position was unshakable after the Great War.

As a result, the veteran set out a little late.

But the Bilbali people accept everyone and do not consider financial issues at all. As long as someone is willing to earn the money and has a certain level of ability, they are willing to hire him, even if it is just a loose team formed temporarily by a group of vagrants.

After being hired, large-scale war dogs are often assigned to garrison in various places, or to form large troop groups, defend fortresses, prepare for decisive battles, etc. Rodrian's veteran mercenary group and several other smaller but capable teams were assigned this special task.

Go south into the Pina Forest, where you will support a so-called "horde" of beastmen in their fight against the greenskins.

The Northern Parliament took into consideration that Pina's terrain was special and might not be suitable for large-scale troop operations, and the 5,000 men in the advance corps were arranged so that they could take the initiative in attacking. These small and capable teams were specially selected as the large-scale dogs of war. The Northern Parliament needed them to go to various places to defend or prepare for subsequent wars that might break out, and was reluctant to send them out.

The combined number of mercenary groups is less than a thousand, but there are a large number of accompanying civilian laborers to help transport supplies. This is basically the last support the northerners intend to give to their tribal allies before the decisive battle. What happens next will depend on the development of the battle.

According to the Northern Parliament's idea, there are at least 200,000 refugees there, plus it is said that the tribes have the same traits as the dwarves (holding grudges, valuing trust and being good at fighting). Even if the population is sparse, with the 5,000 people in the advance corps, and a chance of arming another 10,000 or 20,000 refugees, or 30,000 or 40,000 refugees, they should be able to hold back 40,000 to 50,000 greenskins by taking advantage of the terrain.

That's enough.

If they could contain a portion of the greenskins' strength in the forest, and fight a guerrilla war with the beastmen and refugees, then the people of the Northern Parliament would feel that their investment had paid off.

Rodrian's team and others came with this mission to support the battle in the forest.

They are few in number, but they are elite and suitable for small-scale battles. They can play a role in situations where large-scale combat is difficult in the forest.

Nothing happened that night, and the mercenaries continued on their journey. After a few more days of travel, they finally reached the outskirts of Pina.

They had just been stationed on the outskirts for a short while and were planning to rest when a werewolf scout discovered this human army.

In fact, when the mercenaries approached Pina, El's tribe had already learned about this mercenary group and the civilian laborers who were transporting supplies.

Deliberately waiting before making contact was also to avoid showing off one's overly keen control over the forest.

The werewolves found the sentinels of the advance legion stationed in the north of Pina and had their first contact with the troops heading south from the north. They quickly confirmed the situation of both sides, and then at the instruction of Al, the reinforcements from the kingdom were divided into two parts.

A small number of mercenaries led the laborers to transport the baggage and weapons to the designated gathering place, and then let them return north under a ceremonial escort. The tribe could no longer afford to feed more mouths, and the laborers' prior contracts also stipulated that after completing the transportation mission, they would return to Bilbarri to continue working.

The main combat forces, under the request of El and the vanguard commander and parliamentary representatives controlled by him, headed to the front line, where they were already in a stalemate with the enemy:

A copycat of the Sacred Grove fortress in the Golden Wall fortress, enhanced with Winds of Magic.

Their individual strength is even stronger, and there are even some spellcasters among them. Al doesn't want to take the risk of letting them stop and go in various places along the way of the tribe, perhaps they will see something.

As for the name of the fortress, it was just randomly chosen by Aiel. It sounds more prestigious, making the greenskins think that this is a powerful place for the tribe and that there are strong enough opponents here, which is to actively lure them to come and chop.

As for how the greenskins know?

There will definitely be prisoners on both sides of a war, regardless of whether they are the enemy or us.

In contrast, Ai'er has been fighting small, prepared battles, and there have been some beastmen captured, but the number is very small.

The angry-horned beasts are even tougher. Unless their bones are pulled out and smashed by these red angry beasts, they will try their best to resist, kill or be killed by the enemy.

Ordinary orcs are relatively less fanatical and can generally accept being captured, but being slaves to greenskins means they run the risk of being used as food or being used for fun by big guys and boys (meaning being dragged to fight beasts), so the intensity of their resistance is also very high.

Humans are relatively docile. At the request of the warlords, the greenskins will not take the initiative to kill the humans who can be captured and have given up resistance. Instead, they will kick them to the back and hand them over to the goblins or the humans who serve the warlords to take care of them.

Then, Ai'er used this method to instill in our human army that this place is very important, it is the holy place of our tribe, the altar of our ancestors, the ancestral land of our dragon, and the tribe will defend it to the death, and so on. Then, he passed the message to the enemy through the mouths of the captives.

Chapter 158: Defending the City

Rodrian's team quickly arrived at the front line. After resting, with the spell support of the shamans and a feint attack launched by the outer troops, they quietly crossed the encirclement of the greenskins and entered this fortress that stood somewhat abruptly in the forest.

There were still many mutilated corpses scattered among the wooden spikes and fences of the city walls and in the crude trenches and tunnels outside the city.

Rodrian was a little confused. Why didn't the beastmen burn the greenskin corpses?

Later, the Beastmen explained that the Pina Forest has sacred power. The blessed land and plants here will not be parasitized by the greenskin spores and then grow mushrooms. Instead, they can digest their corpses and various residues.

In the brief and quick contact, the mercenaries were shocked by the strength and organization displayed by the tribal beastmen. They had a common and peculiar belief in worshiping four goddesses, powerful spellcasters, a large number of elite warriors, some terrifying creatures that were looming in the roar as soldiers, and an astonishingly charismatic ruler. The tribe's supreme ruler, the "Beast King", did not meet the mercenaries in person. It was said that his third offspring, the master of a separate tribe, who called himself Barbatos El, an androgynous and beautiful beastman, met them.

After a brief negotiation, the two sides continued to advance, but the extremely brief contact still left a deep impression on Rodrian.

Rodrian also discovered that after seeing the "Beastman" leader with slender, even cute horns, stunning looks, amazing charm, and a cheerful and generous appearance that left no doubt that she was an elf princess or prince, regardless of her Beastman identity, Stephanie, who used to have a sensory aversion to the Beastman tribe, seemed to have changed her attitude a lot and no longer complained about her dissatisfaction with the object of this commissioned assistance.

I sighed silently in my heart, people... women...

Rodrian's team joined the defense of the Sacred Forest Fortress. On the other side, after safely sending this elite human reinforcement in, Al was relieved.

Before this, there were big mistakes in his preparation!

Especially, the underestimation of the greenskins.

From the rescue of Vering to the blocking battle not long ago, except for the loss he suffered at the beginning of the Battle of Cheporio when he was stabbed in the back by the surrendered greenskin Estalia, he has always been in the upper hand in the battles between Aiur and the greenskins. He was more concerned about how to reduce his own casualties and how to avoid the greenskins from fighting him to the death, while using his main force to fight the north.

Basically, it is a situation where the tribe can win.

But in the early stages of the Sacred Forest Defense War, Aiel was caught off guard. The Greenskins' command did not go exactly as he had imagined, attacking the city and attacking hard, and then the vanguard was gradually attracted here. He then found a suitable opportunity to jump in and defeat the enemy. Balabala...

The greenskins used all their strength from the beginning!

Full strength!

Three giant golems stepped onto the battlefield amid the trembling of the earth, and almost destroyed one of the city walls. The defense line was on the verge of collapse. Al almost couldn't hold back and activated the earth veins to teleport reinforcements to the battlefield in advance. Later, the shamans in the sacred forest joined forces to knock down one of the three giant golems, severely damage one, and leave the battlefield without major damage at the cost of being exhausted and unable to participate in the next battle.

The greenskins used all their strength to strike with their axes, and almost destroyed Aiur's plan. After the hairy colossus broke into the city, the greenskins roared Waaaaagh and poured into the city like a tide. At the most dangerous time, almost one-third of the city, including the city walls, had fallen, and the greenskins once penetrated deep into the heart of the city.

Thanks to the bloody fighting of the Wrath of the Horns Legion and the desperate resistance of the Auxiliary Legion, as well as the morale blow caused by the destruction and severe damage of the F*cking Colossus to the greenskin boys, the offensive on the first day was able to overcome the most difficult part.

The terrain had not yet formed a siege, which also gave reinforcements room to enter the city.

Al stayed in the barracks, staying with the troops who were ready to go, observing the battle situation through the eyes of the griffin, with sweat even oozing from his palms.

It was just a little bit, the greenskin with great momentum almost destroyed his entire plan with one axe.

In order to let the greenskins feel the importance of the tribe to this place, he did not initially put the 5,000 angry-horned beasts and 8,000 mortal soldiers that were originally planned to be used for early guarding and defense into the city, but only left 3,000 beastmen and 5,000 human soldiers.

The remaining 5,000 men were stationed a little further north, between the Sacred Forest and the Advance Legion, intending to move in to guard the city the next day after the siege broke out, before the greenskins had time to completely surround the city.

As a result, with an attack and defense ratio of 8,000 to less than 20,000, the enemy was able to break into the city on the same day and almost fell.

Al regretted his own arrogance. In this world of monsters and demons, just because he had everything, he might also have enemies.

Before, he always used monsters to attack the greenskins, but now it almost happened the other way around and he was defeated by the greenskins using their behemoth units.

The soldiers defending the city that day also suffered heavy casualties, and almost all of the angry-horned beasts were injured. However, most of the injuries were minor and had no impact, but instead increased the accumulation of anger.

More than a quarter of the personnel were killed or seriously injured, and nearly three thousand of the eight thousand defenders were close to losing their combat effectiveness. This was the most brutal and bloody battle that Aiel had encountered since he took command of the tribe.

Fortunately, the original planned defenders quickly advanced into the city and the greenskins did not attack again.

As the shamans from the tribe headquarters failed in their initial siege, Waaaagh's position was weakened. With the interference from outside the field reduced, they secretly entered the city through the earth veins. That night, they managed to repair the main part of the fortress and rescued a group of wounded.

Otherwise, Al would have to consider whether he should find a way to push the advance corps forward now.

If the sacred forest fell, not to mention the casualties, it would be difficult for him to rebuild such a defensive fortress in a short period of time without reserves. At that time, he would either have to rely on the tribe’s own building defenses, or take the initiative to fight a decisive battle with the greenskins in the forest.

Al is confident in his abilities.

If he were to really go to the front line, I estimate that a team of eight angry-horned beasts, or ten people, would be enough for him to command. Even if he had abundant knowledge and power in the treasure trove of knowledge given by the Omniscient One for him to absorb and browse, there is always a difference between talking about it on paper and actually doing it.

This time, at least the enemy's head is not like the greenskins who could be dealt with by just rushing in. As long as it is broken by force, a chain reaction can be formed.

Especially since the gap in numbers between the enemy and us is huge, if the Sacred Forest falls, even if half of the people inside succeed in breaking out, the ratio of the available troops in Aiel's hands to the greenskins will be close to one to four or one to five.

He didn't dare take this risk.

In his heart, Al believed that the best and most suitable plan for him at the moment was to weaken and attract the main firepower of the greenskins through the defense of the sacred forest, and then find the right time to teleport the army and attack the left, middle and right sides with all his strength. It would be best if he could decapitate the greenskin commander and break the morale of the greenskins.

In the blessing of Ai'er, after those later strong and rich blue light spots entered the location of the sacred forest, the position that was infinitely close to a green circle after raising the field of vision barely had the capital to fight against the dense scarlet outside.

But it was just appearance, Al knew.

The 5,000-man advance force had also been split up before, and 3,000 human warriors and 1,000 angry-horned beast warriors summoned from the tribal headquarters had also been sent into the city, relying on the crumbling city defenses to resist the offensive.

Every day, the number of casualties that made him feel distressed was counted, and the number of enemies was so large that Al even had the illusion that these green-skinned creatures were still increasing in number.