Warhammer

Accusing the monarch of such a country of being a Chaos Heretic would have such serious consequences that even the Ecumenical Council would not dare to make a decision lightly. The crime of "heresy" is rarely used by the state religion, let alone against a foreign monarch who does not believe in Sigmar (brothers in heaven?).

If things go wrong, the result will be a war between the two countries, and the dwarves will be involved.

Even the initiative may not be in their hands, and it is possible that Al will take the initiative to do something...

When Rhine thought of the problems ahead, he suddenly felt a headache: political struggles, military threats, international conflicts, heretics...

This vanguard army entered the battlefield of the Badlands and faced threats from all sides before they officially engaged the enemy. Behind them were the dark forces at home and in front of them were powerful enemies and unknown challenges. If they were not careful, the legion and Celestine, Rhine and others would be crushed in this storm.

The enemy is powerful, omnipresent, and the path ahead is unknown.

......

Despite the commander's worries, the vanguard still successfully arrived at the Valeka Hills, but the enemy was one step faster than them - a warband composed of tens of thousands of greenskins had arrived at the Valeka Hills before them. They swept through some surrounding settlements and launched two attacks on the dwarf fortress, but both failed.

Lacking any means of siege, they could only build the most rudimentary stone-throwing and grenade-throwing tools, or roll out some artillery pieces that they had dug out from a pile of rubbish and that belonged to some unlucky unit.

Although these long-abandoned artillery pieces were a gamble every time they fired, and the "shells" made of scraps and gunpowder made people very suspicious, who was the enemy or their own people who were killed in the end? But in any case, they could still be used, and there was no more demand for the greenskins.

There was no reason to retreat from the enemy this time, not to mention that Celestine was heading east just to be on the safe side and avoid falling into an enemy ambush and killing her men in vain.

Soon, the army deployed outside the fortress and confronted the greenskins besieging the city under the hills.

Without any prior communication, when the dwarves in the city saw a human army appearing outside the city, they assumed that it was their reinforcements. The defenders in the city quickly began to prepare. They wanted to attack from the front and back and destroy this greenskin army under the fortress.

Celestine handed the command to Rhine, and led the most elite knights to the only battlefield where she could be sure that what she did was right and just, to massacre the barbarians!

The Greenskins have been a constant threat to humanity since the Age of Sigmar.

There were no surprises in this battle, and the gap between the two sides was huge.

After Celestine cracked the skull of the greenskin warlord with the hammer she got from Bilbarry, his men scattered and their morale collapsed.

Then it’s time to chase after the dead.

The expeditionary force with a large number of cavalry quickly killed or dispersed all the greenskins outside the city. The dwarves also opened the gate and sent out a team to welcome the allies who came to support them.

145: Conversation in a Secret Room

"Gronni, thank you, my friends of the dwarves."

The Valeka Fortress opened its gates to welcome the expeditionary force. This fortress was directly controlled by the Eternal Peak and was basically equivalent to a branch of Karaza a Karak. When the expeditionary force arrived here, they were officially in contact with the Kingdom of Mountains.

The dwarves warmly welcomed the arrival of the Imperial Expeditionary Force. They opened their warehouses and moved out all kinds of supplies, and held a grand banquet for the whole city to celebrate.

Hoffman Whitebeard, the man in charge of Eternal Peak in Valleka and the uncle of the High King, met with Celestine and others as a representative of the fortress.

"Those brainless idiots won't be able to trouble us for long! Friends, I am sure that when the reinforcements from Eternal Peak arrive, those noisy greenskins outside the Sea Gate will not pose any threat at all - even Barak Sea Gate's own defense will be enough to make the greenskins retreat with bloody heads!" Once the dwarf starts drinking, he becomes very excited and his mouth will chatter non-stop.

At the banquet, Hoffman boasted to Celestine and others: "Haimen Pass has three walls: the fleet, the terrain, and finally the dwarf's fortress! Each one is so indestructible! This city cannot fall. Your anxious rush here is completely unnecessary———" He raised his glass, and the young mustached dwarf standing behind him gently poked Hoffman's back. He wiped his mouth and added: "But no matter what, the dwarves will thank you for your help, allies, the son of Granni and the son of Sigmar! We fight side by side!"

"Fight alongside!"

The people celebrating at the banquet raised their glasses and shouted in agreement.

Celestine naturally would not take a dwarf's normal bragging to heart. She did not think it was a big deal. If the dwarves were extremely powerful and the expedition went smoothly, she would feel a little relieved... At least the possibility of this army encountering danger would be less.

If you are not able to get used to the boasting and bombast of dwarves and analyze the exact situation from them when dealing with them, you will not be a qualified diplomat.

Although he became a little unrestrained after drinking, Hoffman was still a reliable affairs officer. He had coordinated all matters with the expeditionary force before the banquet, including camp arrangements and most importantly, when the reinforcements from Eternal Peak would arrive, when to set off, and the storage of supplies.

Now it's just a matter of relaxing and celebrating.

Soon both the host and the guests were in great joy, and the music ended and the crowd dispersed. The dwarves of Valeka were obviously surprised by the sudden siege of Haimen Pass. The arrival of the expeditionary force stabilized the morale of the people in time. What did the sudden appearance of a group of greenskins matter?

The Alliance, the Empire, a rising star on the order side and the big brother of the old world order camp come together to support the Mountains. Can the crickets and greenskins stop them?

Dwarves are good at attacking and defending; the Alliance is good at raiding and field battles; the Empire is all-powerful!

The land is vast and rich in resources, with everything!

The three most important weapons for a country: steel, faith, and gunpowder.

Provinces, border guards, free militia... the largest standing military force in the world except for the Cathay Empire, with knight orders, fleets, gunnery academies, magic academies... it can be said that it has everything from land, sea, and air, without any shortcomings!

These three forces combined basically have everything the Old World says. Not to mention fighting a greenskin, even launching a great expedition to the east to find Zhendan and have a fight...

With such an ally joining the fight, the threat from Haimen Pass was not much of a problem in the eyes of the Valeka dwarves.

After all, ever since the failure of Gogo Maogo, the "last greenskin warlord", the greenskins have been weak for a long time. Now they don't even have a decent big boss. They have to rely on a group of cunning goblins to use despicable means to maintain the integrity of the war gang.

The commander of the greenskin army that is now besieging Haimen Pass is Gao Maoliang Feilong, who once led an expedition to the Southern Kingdom. This news is not known to outsiders, who just think of him as another warlord rising in the badlands.

What's more, Gao Maoliang's record was not very outstanding. The degree of harm was limited to the country of Estalia, and it was destroyed by Ai'er halfway and did not develop to its peak scale. Therefore, the dwarves did not attach much importance to the threat to Haimen Pass - what they focused on was that Haimen Pass could not afford to make any mistakes, rather than the specific strength of the enemy.

Everyone has this idea to some extent:

Once the reinforcements from Yongheng Peak arrive, everything will be smooth sailing and the siege of Haimen Pass will be lifted.

Whether it is a dwarf or a human, or even the "Beastman waaaaaghboss" who is leading his troops deep in the badlands and looking for greenskins to fight.

Only a few people are concerned about this.

Celestine learned through a brief battle at the cost of a small army that the leader of this greenskin army was not as reckless and violent as the "stereotype". He was aware of the existence of reinforcements and would take the initiative to set an ambush. Judging from the intensity of his ambush, perhaps this was his purpose, to surround the reinforcements and eliminate the reinforcements of the dwarves and humans...

It also set up an ambush in the north of Haimen Pass. This side is the Border Prince's Territory of Akendorf, which has not yet formed a unified force. The largest Border Prince's Territory, which is about the same strength as the Duchy of Tyrell, has not joined the war to recover the lost territory. Akendorf is an immigrant and commercial city-state that prospered by the Blackfire Pass, and its strength is not strong.

Normally, when dwarves come to support Haimen Pass, they should come from the northeast. This means that this greenskin knows that an army to reinforce the dwarves will come from the north...it has some grasp of the situation in the Order camp!

This made Celestine always have an indescribable feeling in her heart, as if she was facing a very powerful enemy... This situation had not appeared for a long time since she and Bilbarry fought together until the greenskin army was annihilated outside the city.

She didn't know that the enemy in front of her was the warlord who almost conquered the human kingdom in a way that no greenskin had ever done before, but it did not affect her intuition that the enemy was not ordinary.

Late at night.

But the Valleka Fortress was still brightly lit. In order to guard against the greenskins' sneak attack, bonfires and watchtowers were set up far away outside the city, and the soldiers patrolling on the city walls never stopped.

Celestine and Rhine discussed the follow-up plans in a secret room provided by the dwarves.

Although dwarves sometimes tend to exaggerate and brag, once they make a promise, they are completely trustworthy.

Celestine asked the dwarf for a "safe place where no one will disturb or spy on you." The dwarf immediately found a secret room that was winding underground and almost completely sealed and gave it to her.

Only in the "foreigner" territory can Celestine discuss many things with Rhine with confidence.

There were countless eyes in the expeditionary force silently observing the cousins' every move.

Chapter 146: Borrowing a Knife to Kill

Celestine looked at the map and frowned, "The dwarves are too confident. Facing an enemy they don't even know about... this is not a good thing."

“You have to be prepared for the unexpected.”

After what happened in Estalia, Celestine became extremely wary of many things and would consider whether there might be other threats or reversals.

In this respect, he is very similar to Al.

Don’t worry about winning, think about defeat first.

"As long as there are no accidents with the reinforcements from Eternal Peak, there shouldn't be any problems?" Rhine felt that under the current circumstances, there was an absolute gap in strength between the two sides.

If it was a field battle, there might be a lot of trouble, but the greenskins chose to besiege the city, especially Haimen Pass, an extremely strong fortress.

There are only two possibilities for Haimen Pass: it will fall or it will be defended. Under normal circumstances, the latter is more likely. The greenskins besieging the city will inevitably suffer huge losses. After they gather their forces together and head towards Haimen Pass, it should be conservatively considered that it should be no problem to rescue it at night.

If there is a one in ten thousand chance that Haimen Pass falls, then all strategic plans will have to be overturned and started over again. The enemy force in front of them may very well be the main force of the greenskins, or another civilization disaster rushing out of the wilderness.

"Some problems have occurred in the country. The next batch of reinforcements will not arrive for at least two months..."

The two talked about strategic plans and opinions for a while, but suddenly they fell into silence.

After a while, Rhine saw that Celestine had a calm expression, so he couldn't help but say, "In order to prevent the impact on morale, I have instructed them not to disclose it to the outside world."

"The reserves in the border city are seriously depleted. The supplies we brought with us were gathered by the local people in every possible way. It is impossible to supply the troops behind us."

"Someone in the Senate used this as an opportunity to launch an impeachment case, demanding rectification and review of the reserve situation in various places to prevent corruption from being covered up by the war."

"The troops were delayed because of this... It was perfect and everything matched up."

He gave a wry smile.

The deficit is real.

The empire has enjoyed peace for a long time and has not fought a major war in many years.

The local military system had long been broken down, the militia and most of the provincial armies had become rotten beyond recognition, and only the border guards and the standing legions directly under the various electors and the empire still had the strength to support the reputation of this big empire.

Anyway, nowadays, corrupt officials are not afraid of all kinds of strange beasts, greenskins, and undead coming out of the woods; the Chaos and Yankees coming from the north chop off their own heads and pile them into mausoleums, or they are chopped off and used as sacrifices during war.

The war preparations and warehouses in various places have basically become oil tanks that fatten the rats. It's just that there were no wars in the past, so they just muddled through them. Many traditional imperial noble families are also making fortunes from these businesses, so no one would be so desperate as to check the accounts.

It's okay in normal times, and we turn a blind eye to it. But now that we have really encountered a war, there is nothing we can do. Beheading is inevitable, otherwise the impact will be too bad. In this situation, if someone runs into the muzzle of the gun, either beating or killing, no one has any objection. After all, war is the top priority of the country, and no one has any objection to it.

But it is obvious that some people in the country are deliberately making the impact of this incident worse.

Is auditing an excuse to delay military affairs?

If it’s just ten days or half a month late, Haimen Pass might be gone!

When the dwarves saw that you had promised them support, they only sent a troop of tens of thousands of people after all the trouble. The main force behind them stopped moving for an inexplicable reason... It would be strange if the defense was not broken, and there will be some entries in the Book of Hatred anyway.

The border city has no food, so how can Ivyland, Muttland, Thorland—even the dead in Sylvania not have supplies? !

This is still the case if you look for it nearby. If you go further away, Stirling in the north and Talabek further north have always been major agricultural provinces in the empire. It will take less than a month to transfer Talabeheim's supplies to Averheim at full speed!

Simply...

"Hu..." Rhine exhaled a foul breath, feeling extremely depressed. He had followed Celestine to lead the troops south, crossed the Blackfire Pass, and rushed thousands of miles to support the allies. But his spirit became more and more depressed after he thought of many things since he arrived in the badlands.

He looked at his cousin, his eyes flickering: "They really dare to do this, really... Sigma!" He wailed and chanted the holy name of the God-Emperor, a holy name that could always give infinite power to its believers on the battlefield and in all places of death, but it was completely unable to change the powerless present.

A whole elite group of 10,000 people...

If this army was in Altdorf, it would be possible for them to stage a coup d'état. Perhaps it was because of this worry that the situation had become worse since the expedition entered the Badlands...

But when they did nothing and didn't even have the thought, and if such a thing really happened, they might be the first batch to take up swords to defend the country, and they would follow one after another. However, the bigwigs felt that there was such a "possibility", so they would rather risk the possibility of delaying the battle and make this legion meet their end in the evil land in a way that might be silent, might be tragic, and at least without letting the blood of any bigwig be stained on their hands.

In the past, Rhine would never have dared to think about it.

Celestine, however, didn't seem to be affected by this at all.

She just touched Rhine's head, ruffled her restless short hair, and said, "I chose to come to Valleka Fortress for another purpose."

"Right now, compared to the country, the dwarves are more trustworthy."

"If there are no reinforcements and our strength is insufficient, we can reasonably submit to the dwarven military system. At least they will not send the expeditionary force to its death."

"Many things, whether it's domestic orders or commands, if they are really excessive, we can also use the dwarves to deal with them."

She took a breath, silently recited Sigmar's scriptures in her heart, and continued: "It's okay if there are no reinforcements for the time being. If a general or marshal with rich experience comes and gives the expeditionary force an impossible and possibly fatal order, such as asking us to bypass Haimen Pass, recapture Everlook Castle, and set up an outpost southward..." Celestine paused suddenly at this point.

She thought of the kid who was now in the south.

"To listen or not to listen?" She quickly continued to focus on the present and asked Rhine.

"They, the vast majority of this army, will definitely execute orders without hesitation, because they are devout believers and loyal soldiers. Even you and I, our speculations and inferences about the domestic situation during this period may be completely wrong conjectures."

"There is no actual evidence to prove that there are indeed some people from the court to the Senate and then to the Ecumenical Council who want to eliminate the forces of the Returnists, starting with this expeditionary force that is deeply influenced by them."

"Using a knife to kill someone, using the greenskins' butcher knife to eliminate the enemy without bloodshed." Celestine said with emotion, "Not only does he not have to bear a bad reputation, but he can also eliminate a major opponent. That's what he did in Estalia. I just figured it out two days ago."

Rhine was instantly filled with fear.

While being surprised at how much Celestine had changed... at the same time, he thought of "that person".

At the beginning......

Last day off. No more holidays this month.

rt

Chapter 147: Eternal Peak Reinforcements

After several days of rest, a flag that excited all the defenders finally appeared on the outskirts of Valleka!

A large flag with blue background and gold runes!

"The army of Eternal Peak!"

"Reinforcements have arrived!"