Warhammer

It pounced forward and threw the axe in its hand, hitting a militiaman in the face. The latter fell to the ground with a scream. At the same time, it reached out and grabbed another militiaman who was already frightened, pulled him in front of it, opened its fangs and mouth, bit his neck directly and began to tear it.

The shrill screams actually made the troops on this front line waver. Three people were facing one greenskin. The opponent directly collided with their weapons and was killed by the counterattack. Instead, the man who let go of the weapon first and "ran away" survived.

Fortunately, another soldier stepped forward decisively and stabbed the greenskin in the back of the neck with a spear, ending the beast's brutality.

But the soldier whose throat was bitten by it was obviously dead. His throat was torn by the green skin, and blood bubbles were gurgling in his mouth, making a "ho ho" sound.

.........

Rhine put down his binoculars and frowned.

Simply arming untrained civilians and sending them to the battlefield is undoubtedly sending them to their deaths.

If it weren't for the orders from home and the hope that his mentor, Chief of the Expedition Augustine, would lead his troops to help, Rhine would rather take the 7,000 men into the border area with Celestine to fight guerrilla warfare with the greenskins than mobilize a large group of militia to fight a desperate battle with the greenskins in this rich but weak city with neither a strong fortress nor an elite army.

During this period, especially after the greenskins began to attack, the poor performance of the militia and the level of the mob made him even start to think:

Are the domestic orders correct?

Even the Matoka people themselves lack the confidence and enthusiasm to defend their native land. Rhine is the de facto commander-in-chief of the Empire's "overseas autonomous region" in Matoka (Celestine does not care much about specific affairs and is a nominal figure), and the leader who represents the Empire's authority.

The strategy of using influence to forcefully promote the Matoka armed militia, leaving the men behind while the women and children go away...If the war fails, who will be held responsible?

There is no need to think too much. The Matoka people have a strong tendency to avoid war and protect themselves. This is true for surrender and for offering their land to the Empire. If Matoka finally falls and the defenders suffer heavy casualties, they will definitely resent the empire that "forced" them to stay and defend their homeland.

As for the expeditionary force...it failed to complete the task assigned by the country, defending Matoka until the reinforcements arrived, and cooperating with the expeditionary force of the chief...

All these thoughts made Rhine more and more irritated. He suddenly became concerned about the traditions of Julius's family:

"Don't worry about anything except fighting"

Have a deeper understanding.

This is the wisdom of our ancestor, the founder of our family, Carl Julius, and it also shows that our ancestor is well aware of his own shortcomings and those of his descendants.

When he was in Estalia, he was just the commander of a troop of only two to three thousand men at most, and was passively involved in the war in the south. He just had to fight the battle in front of him. Although he was fighting in a foreign country as a foreign army, at least the side of order was united as a whole to fight against the greenskins.

He would not consider whether the order issued by the Northern Parliament at that time had any "deeper meaning" or "means" in it. He just wanted to fulfill his responsibilities as a pure soldier.

Up to now, he and Celestine were fighting as commanders of an independent legion in the "territory" outside the national border. They were both military and local highest officials. There were many more things to consider, not to mention his and Celestine's speculation about "treason" in the country.

He was extremely distressed by the fact that his limbs, which were obeying orders, had to rebel against his brain, even though the brain might be deliberately sending them to their deaths.

After all, the Empire is a massive mortal giant, Leviathan, with thousands of arms and legs, and losing a few of them will not be a problem for this giant beast.

If it was purely from a military perspective, Rhine would not choose to defend Matoka... It would be great if that were possible...

Unfortunately, although the medieval world is affected by supernatural elements, the famous saying from another world is not applicable to any scene, but it is indeed reasonable at this time and place:

Politics is war without bloodshed;

War is the continuation of politics;

The expeditionary force had a deep political influence before it set out. All eyes were on this force, from the high-spirited gathering for the expedition, to the failure at Haimen Pass, to the current siege at Matoka...

The saddest thing for an army is the country it belongs to. The minds that can influence, unite and dominate this vast empire are hostile to it.

........

The adjutant leaned over and whispered something in his ear.

Rhine frowned.

"What time is it now?"

He asked, and before the adjutant could answer, he scolded:

"Over there! Right there!" He waved his hand forward. "The enemy has appeared in my sight and is about to come under my nose, but 90% of the people in this city are still fighting! Ask them to come over and tell me how to decide the survival of these people!"

Chapter 209: Retreat?

The continuous and fierce attacks from the greenskins have left Matoka with almost no chance to breathe in the past few days, and it has to deal with the enemy's offensive from morning to night.

Relying on a large number of militia reserves and the Imperial Expeditionary Force as its backbone, Matoka has managed to hold on until now under the attacks of the greenskins.

But the situation was still gradually developing in a direction that was unfavorable to the defenders.

Rhine has been trying his best to coordinate the overall situation, maximize the use of the limited military force in his hand, and strive to make the best use of every card - although this may be too cruel for the soldiers, for the sake of the overall situation Rhine does have to use soldiers as exchange pieces at times to fight for more important forms.

Fortunately, overall, although the greenskins have entered the city, more than 70% of the land in the entire Matoka city is still firmly controlled by the defenders, including the most important road leading to the port, which is also heavily guarded by Rhine.

Rhine never expected to defeat Gao Maoliang's army by relying on the "rabble" militia and 7,000 expeditionary forces that Matoka had temporarily mobilized. All he had to do was buy time and delay until the chief reinforcements on the way arrived.

Therefore, all his plans were to buy as much time as possible through defense. Of course, launching an attack to seize key locations or respond to the battlefield situation when necessary was also indispensable.

Although the Matoka mobilized militia, which had not experienced any battles, had a lot of shortcomings by the standards of a regular army, such as fluctuating morale, lack of training, weak will, and insufficient combat wisdom... they were in a defensive battle after all, and with the buff of "defending the country", their overall performance was still barely holding up, and was still better than the slave rats and Batto serfs. But the problem now was:

The body can still hold up;

The “brain” doesn’t want to think about it anymore.

In the defense of Matoka, those dignitaries who were forced by Rhine and chose to stay and "take risks" reluctantly after receiving his promise of protection were, after all, typical "Matoka people".

Having no experience in war and indulging in pleasure, they have enjoyed much more than ordinary people in the past, so it cannot be said that they have taken much risk.

From the post-war period to today, there are almost no heroes in the upper class who started from scratch and made their way to the top. And those powerful and famous families in the so-called "Senate" all have "several generations of family businesses" behind them.

Borderers like to form alliances through marriage, just like the Tyrells, but the intensity of their internal strife is much less than that of their neighbors who have a profound influence on them, so the situation is relatively stable.

In addition, the border territories were invaded successively by greenskins, skaven, and chaos beasts during the Great Holy War. The vast land and sparse population also made the class conflicts in the border territories generally mild. Immigrants who came here with nothing could always make a fortune as long as they could survive the first year. At the very least, they could be a small self-employed farmer with no worries about food and clothing. Then, with few natural disasters or man-made disasters, they could pass on their family business steadily and expand their family business.

In this case, there is certainly a certain kind of retro pastoral utopian "beauty" and "tranquility", but once faced with storms and huge waves, it is inevitable that it cannot withstand the test.

The greenskins' artillery has been rumbling non-stop these past few days, with shouts of killing and horns. Even as role models of the ruling class, the mascots are generally protected in the most central and secretive places of the garrison. Not to mention being far away from the battlefield, but even if the city is broken, they will definitely be the last to die. Some of the dignitaries can't stand it.

Especially after learning that "the enemy is advancing in a panic and our army is retreating in an orderly manner", which seemed to be a complete loss, their perception of danger was frozen.

I knew the greenskins were dangerous, but I didn't expect them to be so dangerous!

He’s almost here, is there still time if you don’t run away?

In order to prevent these people from causing trouble, after Rhine took over the power of the Matoka city-state on behalf of the expeditionary force, he divided the noble representatives who were willing to stay into two groups. One part who did not want to go to the battlefield stayed in the designated safe house with their servants and attendants, occasionally showing up to maintain morale, and was purely a mascot.

Others who are capable and daring will be assigned tasks and go directly to the battlefield to fight. These people can use this as a qualification for promotion in the future. If they unfortunately die in battle, they will also be brave warriors who sacrificed their lives heroically to defend their country.

The latter is easier to say. No matter how good Matoka is at both literary and martial arts, there will be at least a few talented and ambitious people among the powerful and wealthy.

But even those parasites who were squatting in the back and enjoying the best protection, while the soldiers were fighting with the greenskins in street fighting, and they had special servants in the back to provide services, could not sit still.

They realized that the "battle situation was unfavorable" - in fact, this was normal. After all, the gap in strength was there, and a "steady retreat" was inevitable to buy time.

But they felt that this was a sign of the situation collapsing, and they secretly connected with each other and felt that:

As for the responsibility of defending the territory, after all, they have held out for so long (five days), and so many men in the city have been mobilized to join the army. They have also stayed to set an example, and the Empire has done enough to report to them - it's because the reinforcements have not arrived.

Now that the situation is hopeless and the outcome of resistance is inevitable, isn't it time to prepare for retreat?

Afterwards, they hoped that Rhine would fulfill his previous promise, which was to ensure the safe retreat of the defenders.

Because this time the greenskins don't have a fleet to assist in the invasion like they did in Estalia, and they can't control the sea. Gao Maoliang actually prepared some warships in his hometown in the southern badlands, but because he failed to capture the dwarf's sea gate, the dwarf's armored fleet can display its power in Blackwater Bay without any worries. The greenskins' shabby ships can't come in at all, and if they dare to show their heads, they will be found by the dwarves.

Therefore, Matoka still retained a "fleet" of hundreds of ships of all sizes. Yes, it can only be called a "fleet" and not a "fleet", because the only ones that can truly be called "warships" are a dozen small sampans, and there are only three "battleships" equipped with artillery, and the rest are all fishing boats and sampans.

These ships can only operate in the stable hydrological environment of Blackwater Bay, and dare not even go too far. Accidents may occur if the wind and waves are strong. But for the greenskins who do not have a single ship under their command, it is at least enough for retreat. Besides, when it really comes to a last resort, requesting the dwarf fleet to come to support and help with the retreat is also a feasible strategy.

In order to prevent sabotage by the greenskins, and because Rhine was not sure that it could firmly secure the port, Matoka's fleet did not anchor in the harbor. Instead, they either dropped anchor and drifted near the coast, or lurked in nearby hidden fjords, waiting for the signal from the defenders.

These parasites in Matoka now hope that Rhine can make a "decisive" decision, turn the troops to the port, and call for ships to evacuate the troops.

Their intentions seemed good. They felt the situation was unfavorable, so they took the initiative to propose retreat to reduce casualties.

Of course, as for what to do if the greenskins pursue them during the retreat, if they abandon the defense line, they will not be able to stop the greenskins, and if they want to hold the greenskins back, someone will have to stay behind and die; and if they withdraw now, how many people can the hundreds of ships carry... They seem to pretend that these problems do not exist and do not consider them.

Mobilizing the entire city's military forces, they retreated while most of the city was still under the control of the defenders. They held out for five days, which was only two days longer than when Matoka first fought the greenskins... Rhine would rather die in battle than do such a stupid thing.

He handed his sword to his adjutant and asked him to tell those parasites who were advocating "evacuate as soon as possible" and "transfer in time":

If you insist on retreating, then, in order to fulfill my military duties, I, Rhine Julius, will stay with the expeditionary force and Matoka's indispensable "important figures" to cover your retreat and evacuate the old, young and wounded in batches. As commanders, we need to be responsible for the soldiers under us... As for you, please stay with me until the last fleet arrives!

210: Augustine

Rhine asked his adjutant to take his sword and show his attitude to the parasites. At the same time, in order to prevent these people from causing trouble, he also asked his adjutant to take the guards and conscript the servants who served these people into the army in the name of drawing manpower for the war. Each person could only have one servant to serve him, so as to prevent these timid and stupid guys from doing anything stupid.

It is conceivable that those people would be extremely dissatisfied with Rhine because of this incident, and it would even rise to the level of attitude towards the empire.

But Rhine had no choice but to do this.

Who could have thought that this group of people were so timid, since they all stayed, they couldn't wait to get on the ship and run away before the building was about to collapse... I think they chose to stay probably out of the idea of ​​​​winning credit and showing off, and they didn't really want to stay in Matoka and fight the greenskins to the end.

But what Rhine did was only a temporary solution and not a fundamental solution. When the situation could still be controlled temporarily, it was understandable that he did so for the sake of stability. But when things became impossible to do, no matter how many harsh laws were used, they would not be able to prevent people's morale from being torn apart like a landslide.

There were two battlegrounds that determined Matoka's survival.

One is right where Rhine is now, and the other is to the west of them...

Augustin Usnov, the empire's chief warlord, led an expeditionary force that was crucial to the situation on the border.

They assembled in Sol Territory, and after the formation was completed, they quickly headed south, heading straight for Matoka, in order to preserve this outpost that was crucial for the Empire to intervene in the situation in the border prince's territory.

Fifteen days, or half a month, had passed since Rhine contacted his mentor, Lord Augustin, and determined the general battle plan. According to the distance at that time, theoretically, if they were fast, they should be able to arrive in three days. If they forced a march at full speed, it might only take one or two days.

In order to intervene in the situation in the border princes' territories on a large scale and achieve the goal of "coming and not leaving", the expeditionary force organized by the empire this time to conquer the border territories is much more luxurious than the 10,000-man vanguard army. There are more than 50,000 standing troops with more than three years of service. After the empire entered a new era and reformed the military system, the three-year service period became a watershed. Those who served within this period can only be said to be militia or local provincial troops, and those who have served for more than three years can be said to be the real standing army of the empire.

As well as the chivalrous knights of various orders under the banner of "Chivalrous Expedition", more than 6,000 armed retainers, two Nuln standard armored armies, a steam tank, 24,000 Rick Legion troops, and two cavalry armies with 12,000 people.

The direct combat force has reached a scale of 100,000.

Foreign wars of this scale are rare for the Empire, and there have been only a few since the Great War. This time, due to the haste of the trip, Aldorf directly recruited troops from the four provinces of Reik, Nuln, Sol, and Ivy, which are geographically close to the south. Obviously, the aggressive expedition could not be aimed only at the Waaaaagh, which was initiated by Gego·Maogao's Gomao Liang·Feilong and had not even officially touched the gate of the Empire's border.

The attitude of going with Thor instead of Blackfire is also quite intriguing. Starting from the west, the expeditionary force will pass through many border city-states along the way. These places used to be independent countries, relying on the Northern Empire and the Southern Kingdom for trade and foreign fresh blood, but they are not obviously dependent on any force other than the border prince's territory. From the perspective of the imperial people, they are the free cities and free territories here, but they do not have a unified object of loyalty, that is, the human empire.

It is hard to imagine what attitude the Chief of the Expeditionary Forces would have towards each other when they passed through these city-states that were still nominally submitting to the greenskins...

However, for Rhine, whose only task at the moment is to hold on to Matoka and wait for reinforcements to arrive, he cannot consider these things for the time being.

As long as the Chief's army arrives, he is confident that he can cooperate inside and outside to repel the Maoliang war gang outside the city!

-------Dividing line--------

Augustin Usnov rode north on his demi-griffon, overlooking the army entering the city.

His current location was nearly a thousand kilometers away from Matoka, which was far from what Rhine had imagined, that reinforcements would arrive within three to five days.

Even if we advance at full speed over this distance, it will take nearly ten days to reach Matoka if we do not abandon artillery and baggage that greatly affect the marching speed.

Whether Matoka can hold out for that long is a dangerous unknown...

Augustine's appearance is a typical appearance of an Imperial Order of Arms:

He has an angular face, thick eyebrows and big eyes, and two wisps of beard on his lips that tremble with his master's shouts and roars. He always has a frown on his face, and always shouts at the top of his voice so that his subordinates can hear his orders clearly.

The city held a grand welcome ceremony for the Imperial Army that came to "liberate" them. Representatives of the gentry came to the scene one after another to welcome the Imperial Army, and the folks cheered for the arrival of the Imperial Army, because before Augustine arrived, he had sent his subordinates to assist the volunteers of the city to emulate what the expeditionary force did in Matoka, and rescued the hostages who were imprisoned outside the city by the greenskins.

But whether they will welcome the imperial army to stay here for a long time in the future remains to be seen.

Augustine rode on a flying mount and circled in the air for a while before landing after the legion officially entered the city.

He did not like riding horses. Augustin was very proud of being able to obtain and tame a ferocious half-griffon as his fighting partner. Therefore, he rarely rode a horse and preferred to walk. In the words of the Chief of the Conquest:

After being in the company of wild beasts, you can no longer approach sheep.

Representatives of the local gentry came to present welcome gifts to the chief of the expedition, including colorful scarves and flags. Augustine accepted it all with that dignified look on his face from beginning to end.

This made it impossible for anyone to peek into his inner thoughts. No one knew what the empire's chief warrior was thinking, including his subordinates and his enemies.

.........

evening.

In the expeditionary force’s camp.

"Your Excellency, Chief..."

An adjutant touched his collar and spoke hesitantly.

"Rhine... Lord Rhine is facing considerable pressure in Matoka. Should we..." he asked tentatively.

Rhine led a group of militiamen in Matoka to resist the siege of the greenskin army that had risen up to wreak havoc on the border. One can imagine how dangerous the situation was.

Even if his last name was not "Julius", he felt that the Rhine should be rescued in time for purely military reasons.

211. Cavalry