Witch Monastery

……

The next day.

After arranging tasks for various international support teams, the army of the Kingdom of Borneo immediately set out and divided into several groups, heading towards the direction of Gendra Port in a mighty manner.

Although he could not quite understand the strategic map provided by the army of the Bharata Kingdom, based on Wang Du's explanation, Hawthorne could barely understand their intentions: roughly speaking, the entire war was divided into four steps. First, they would gain control of several important checkpoints near Gendra Harbor and block the undead creatures' activity area within a small area;

The second step is to eliminate all the undead creatures wandering outside the pass to ensure the safety of the rear;

The third step is to execute the assault battle plan and destroy the Fallen Prince and his dracolich;

The final step is to wipe out all remaining undead creatures and end this war once and for all.

Well, the idea is nice, but how far they can achieve it depends on their performance at that time.

At least based on what Hawthorne saw, given the current state of the Polo army, he didn't quite believe that this army could successfully complete the expected tasks.

As for why...

Huosang, who set out with the main force of the Kingdom of Boro, couldn't help but sigh in his heart when he looked at the troops in front of him.

Look at the loose and sagging state of the army, the untidy appearance, the listless soldiers, the messy and loose troops, etc. It doesn't look like an army at all, but rather like a group of mobs.

When a superior officer issues an order, it may take more than ten minutes for the lowest-level soldiers to receive it, and then the entire team will begin to execute the order slowly, which highlights the lack of training.

However, think about it, if you were commanding hundreds of combat nuns to fight, you would have to give them numerous instructions and make arrangements for a long time before you could start to attack the monsters.

And this time...

According to Wang Du, the regular field troops they are sending out this time include 10,000 elite soldiers, and then various auxiliary troops and logistics teams, totaling 100,000 people.

When Hawthorne thought about the difficulty of organizing the food, clothing, shelter and transportation of 100,000 people in the wild, he felt his scalp tingling.

Alas, I hope everything goes well on this journey, and I won’t be beaten up by the undead creatures...

He thought so, and still had some hope. However, An Nuo, who was with him, looked at the army in front of him with a frown, and couldn't stop complaining: "I always feel that it's normal for such an army to be wiped out on the way..."

Hearing her comments, Hawthorne couldn't help but say, "Not really, right?"

"The key is that the organization is too poor." An Nuo pouted and looked around worriedly. "Looking at the situation, it's possible that they were ambushed on the plain."

Hawthorne looked stunned: "On the plain? Ambushed? How do we do this?"

An Nuo was stunned for a moment, turned his head and looked behind him, then suddenly realized: "Oh, you probably haven't learned it before, it's okay, I'll teach you."

Huo Sang scratched his hair, looking a little embarrassed. In his previous life, he was just an ordinary college student. He had spent the past year or so studying magic and had never systematically learned about ancient military marches. All his knowledge about this came from the Romance of the Three Kingdoms...

So he really couldn't understand what it would be like to be ambushed in the plains.

An Nuo glanced behind him, then stretched out his finger and pointed to the back: "Look, look at those soldiers, aren't they wearing armor now?"

Hawthorne turned his head to look at the baggage cart behind the troops and nodded. This is true, because they have to march long distances in the wild, so the infantry cannot wear armor, otherwise their physical strength will be quickly consumed, and then they will miss the opportunity to fight and end up in defeat.

The soldiers' armor will be placed together on the vehicle for unified storage and transportation. Only before the battle will it be distributed by the logistics soldiers and then worn for combat.

"Well, that's the situation." Annuo continued, "You see, the soldiers have no combat effectiveness if they don't wear armor and hold weapons properly. However, the process of putting on armor takes time, and it also takes time to change from marching formation to combat formation. During this process, the large army has no ability to resist."

"The essence of an ambush is to take advantage of the time difference between being 'unprepared' and 'prepared'. So as long as you attack before the soldiers have changed their equipment and formed a battle formation, it can still be considered a successful ambush."

Hawthorne tilted his head: "Then send out scouts to go ahead and investigate ahead of time. Wouldn't that be safe?"

An Nuo nodded: "Yes, but the problem is, since you will send out scouts, the enemy will also. Both sides

The scouts will fight each other in the field, repel or destroy each other, and then report the situation and possible changes to their headquarters. "

"After receiving this information, the commander will have to make a decision: let the army rest in place and wait for the enemy to tire themselves out, continue to march forward, or retreat to avoid being surrounded - but no matter which decision is made, it will cost a lot."

"After all, if we continue to march, we may be ambushed, and the other two options may delay us and prevent us from reaching our destination in time, right? An army of tens of thousands of people cannot just move forward or stop as they please."

Hawthorne pondered all of this, simulated it in his mind, nodded, and thought that it was indeed true. When marching in the field, the commanders always had to be careful to face various changes. After all, the enemy was also moving. If they could not make the right judgment in time, it might even delay the situation on the entire battlefield.

Chapter 702 On the march

Seeing that he understood, Annuo nodded: "In this situation, whoever is more organized will react faster. Whether it is advancing or stopping, or immediately putting on armor and holding shields and entering combat status, the more fully trained troops can respond faster."

After saying this, she turned her head and looked behind helplessly: "But what about them?"

Hawthorne glanced at the loose and scattered Pala army in the rear and hesitated: "Uh..."

"I suspect that if we encounter an enemy in the wild, these soldiers may not be able to put on their armor, form a battle formation and enter combat status for two hours." Annuo sighed, "That means the sentinels need to give an early warning two or three hours in advance so that they can fight the enemy in full condition."

"But how is it possible to give warning so long in advance? When the enemy rushes over, most of our people will still be changing armor, and most of them won't be in formation yet, so they won't be able to fight the enemy at all - then, wouldn't that mean we've been ambushed?"

Hawthorne imagined the scene. Most of the soldiers were still queuing up to receive their armor, and most of the soldiers were changing. Only a small number of soldiers had just changed, but they were also holding their weapons and waiting for orders. There was no formation at all...

If I were the commander, I would probably be very desperate: even if I knew the enemy was coming an hour in advance, the soldiers under my command were far from ready and could do nothing...

Thinking of this, he couldn't help but hold his forehead with his hand and sighed: "Indeed, in such a field march, we are actually at a disadvantage."

As he said this, his mind couldn't help but recall the novels about ancient military affairs that he had read in his previous life.

In that case, the situation proposed in those novels, where one hides in the woods and suddenly rushes out during the chaos, should be an extremely rare and absolutely ideal situation?

Yes, that's right. If you think about it this way, it would be extremely difficult to mobilize an army of tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, or even millions of people. Those scenarios are indeed too ideal.

However, no matter how much they complained about the poor organization of the Bharata army, the army still set out and headed straight for their target location.

There are actually not many dangerous mountains between Navasha Port and Kendra Port, and most of them are vast plains.

Originally, this kind of terrain should not be prone to ambush, but because of what Annuo said about the difference in organization, Hawthorne was always unsure and felt quite frightened.

But no matter what, their troops had to move forward. After all, they had to organize more than 10,000 people to march, and they also had to take care of those huge holy elephants. Their army could not move very fast.

According to Annuo's estimation, they could only walk about thirty to forty miles a day at most. If they happened to encounter any unexpected situation, they might even only walk about twenty miles. It was really alarming.

Fortunately, although the army had left the port of Nawashe, at least in the first few days, they were lucky enough not to encounter any enemies, so they were relatively peaceful.

However, good luck cannot always favor them.

Soon, more than a week passed, and on this day, the enemy finally arrived.

Now, the season has actually entered winter. But thanks to its geographical location, the winter in Borneo is not cold. Even at noon, the sun is still a little bit scorching, making people miserable.

After marching continuously for a morning, the army began to look for a cool, shaded place to rest.

Hawthorne and the others actually still had plenty of energy, but at this moment they had to stop for the time being and stop with these people.

The Brahma servants at the bottom set up tents for the elephant officers to rest, while the ordinary soldiers had to sit on the ground leaning against trees, not caring about hygiene at all.

Just as the chefs were setting up the big pot and the soldiers were lining up to get their meals, the rumbling sound of horse hooves suddenly came from afar, shaking the earth.

Hawthorne and the others looked into the distance and saw thick smoke billowing in the distance. Looking more closely, they found that the people coming were a group of centaurs, and the light armor on their bodies also had the symbol of the country of Bharata.

They knew that these were the cavalry Wang Du had sent out before. Although the organization and discipline of the large force were problematic, fortunately, the quality of these scouts was trustworthy and they should have found out a lot of information.

The Centaurs galloped all the way, and the soldiers who were receiving food along the way gave way and scattered, making the already chaotic scene even more chaotic.

The situation became even more chaotic, and Annuo's blood pressure rose a bit more.

The centaurs rushed into the camp where the elephants were resting, and Hawthorne had an ominous premonition in his heart. On the other side, seeing the centaurs leave, the queue for food that had just been disrupted gathered again and continued to receive food.

Some soldiers took the opportunity to cut in line, but those who were cut in line were not convinced, and both sides started quarreling. The noise disturbed the minotaur officers who were doing their own thing nearby, so they rushed over and slapped the quarreling guys one by one, and then asked them to line up at the back, and only then did they calm down.

However, just when the team had finally regained order, the elephant man suddenly rushed out of the tent, raised his trunk high, and made a series of shrill elephant calls.

Suddenly, the human soldiers who were still receiving their meals were confused and looked at a loss, while the minotaurs who had almost finished their meals put down their bowls, rushed into the crowd, and shouted, "What are you doing? Have you forgotten about training? Stop eating and put on your armor quickly, the enemy is coming!"

They roared loudly, and the soldiers finally reacted and realized what the elephants' shouting meant. They immediately looked at the food in their hands, with reluctance on their faces.

They hadn't even received half of their meals yet, and most of them were still hungry, so they naturally didn't want to fight. But unfortunately, the elephants also rushed up and roared at them: "The undead army is less than ten miles away from here, and you are still dragging your feet. Do you want to die?"

They roared and urged, and some soldiers even had just taken a bite of food when the food in their hands was forcibly knocked over by the elephants and forced to change their armor.

They could not help but feel resentful, but they dared not disobey the orders of the elephant men and the minotaurs, so they had to look back every few steps and walk reluctantly towards the baggage to collect their armor, shields and weapons.

Most of the soldiers in charge of logistics had not eaten yet, so their enthusiasm was naturally not high. Most of the soldiers looked weak, and they were not very agile in changing their armor. Judging from the efficiency of their preparations, it seemed to be even worse than Annuo's most pessimistic prediction.

Seeing the loose organization and low morale, the elephants put on airs again, seeming to maintain good self-control, while the minotaurs stepped forward one after another, cursing: "It's all because of you useless people that we are being held back!"

The sounds of beating and scolding continued to be heard. Huo Sang frowned slightly. In fact, he could not quite understand the thinking of these minotaurs.

If the number of subordinates is limited and due to conditions, such as limited recruitment time, then it is understandable that some of them are unsuitable.

However, this was an army of 10,000 people, and they were the absolute elite field army in the entire country. The members of this army were trained to be like this...

In this case, shouldn’t it be the leader’s responsibility?

How do you organize, lead, and train?

Why didn't you establish a sound incentive and punishment mechanism? Why didn't you help the soldiers build faith? Why didn't you teach them professional skills?

This was Hawthorne's idea. As the saying goes, "If a soldier is bad, his generals will be bad too." Looking at these minotaurs who beat and scolded his soldiers, he couldn't help but show a little contempt in his eyes.

Next to him, Annuo's face was sad: "It's over. I'm afraid this battle will be very difficult to fight. Huo Sang, we must be prepared for a tough battle."

Hawthorne retracted his contemptuous gaze and sighed: "I know...Alas!"

Having said that, he didn't have much to prepare. He just continued to eat in silence, filling his stomach and preparing for the next battle.

Chapter 703 A Wonderful Opponent

In this tense atmosphere, time passed by in agony. Hawthorne and his men waited anxiously, but after two hours, the soldiers had even changed into their armor, but there was still no sign of the enemy.

Some soldiers became impatient and secretly went to the logistics department to get another meal. They have finished their meal now, and the enemy has not appeared yet.

This made Hawthorne and others suspicious, wondering if the intelligence was wrong and the enemy did not actually move towards this side.

However, he was not the commander of the army and had no access to first-hand intelligence, so he did not think too much about it and just waited and prepared.

It looks like the people are arranging their troops, placing soldiers with different equipment in different positions, ready to fight the enemy. But in fact, their formation is also very simple, relying on the woods, setting up roadblocks, and then letting the soldiers with shields walk in front, the engineers driving the catapults are ready to go behind, and the minotaurs are hiding in the woods with giant weapons, waiting for the right time to rush out and crush the chaotic enemy.

Compared to the holy elephants, which are rare in number, have relatively poor physical fitness and can only fight positional warfare, these minotaurs with amazing endurance constitute the cornerstone of the Borneo Kingdom's field encounters and mobile warfare.

They are also the elite among the elite in their expedition team this time.

The fighting power brought by this natural body made them firmly the second class of people in the country of Borneo, second only to the elephant people. In contrast, the advantages of humans have not been fully utilized.

In this way, another half an hour passed, and just when they thought that the enemy might really not come, the sparse traces of skeleton soldiers began to appear in the distance.

At first there were one or two, then more than ten, and then hundreds of skeletons began to run at the end of the earth, and the stench of rotting corpses began to fill the air.

The enemy actually showed up.

Huo Sang could not help but be surprised. Seeing more and more enemies appearing, he estimated from a distance that there were tens of thousands of them. He could not help but be shocked and said, "What's going on? Isn't it said that the distance is less than ten miles? How can they walk for two and a half hours?"

As he spoke, in the distance, the undead creatures and the army of the Borneo Kingdom had already started the first wave of confrontation. Hundreds of skeletons crashed into the heavy shields held by the ordinary soldiers of the Borneo Kingdom. The latter should have been able to block them steadily, but because they generally did not eat well, they were physically weak, so the front line was shaky.

However, the undead creatures did not rush forward all at once. There was a serious disconnect between the front and the back of them. There was a distance of nearly 100 meters between the first wave of skeleton soldiers that rushed up and the second wave of hundreds of zombies. They were unable to make up for the pressure in an instant.

This gave the army of the Polo Kingdom enough time to respond. The catapults in the rear began to pour rubble forward, and the minotaurs on both sides roared out of the forest, raised their sledgehammers, crushed all the skeleton soldiers, and then let the soldiers reorganize their lines to continue to deal with the second wave of attacks.

Huo Sang's face turned sour when he saw the fight between these weaklings. Annuo, who was standing next to him, also had a strange look on his face, not understanding why the fight ended like this.

At this time, behind them, the most experienced Moon Elf Priest Tirrastri stepped forward and whispered, "Most necromancers have not received systematic military training. And the most important thing is that controlling an army of 100,000 undead creatures is not the same as controlling ten undead creatures."

"The simplest thing is: the Centaur sentinels of Poro discovered the traces of the undead creatures, and the latter also discovered them, but the undead creatures have no intelligence and will not report to the necromancer who controls them immediately, right?"

"Besides, even if we know it, controlling the movement of these undead creatures one by one is actually quite troublesome, isn't it?"

As she said this, Annuo couldn't help but open his mouth wide as he listened to the explanations. His brain went into a state of shutdown as he began to process the information and simulate this new situation.

Hawthorne's answer is easy to understand: Imagine if you were playing a real-time strategy game, controlling 10,000 units, with no vision and fog of war everywhere...

Just thinking about that scene made his scalp tingle and he felt that this game was simply unplayable.

On the other side, An Nuo also quickly understood the situation. He couldn't help but fall into silence. After a long time, he sighed: "The Brahmans and the undead creatures are really a perfect pair of opponents..."

Half an hour after the battle began, the real army of undead creatures finally arrived. It was a large army of tens of thousands of people, emitting a terrible stench that reached the sky.

At this time, the elephant people released their real main force, the six powerful holy elephants, and let them trample on the undead creatures' troops.

When they saw the powerful holy elephants, the army of undead creatures realized that they had encountered the absolute main force of the Bharata Kingdom. The necromancer, as the commander, cursed inwardly. He was just following the orders of his superiors to lead a large army to the wild to collect the bones of those who died in a foreign land. Who could have thought that they would encounter the main force of the holy elephants?

He immediately planned to turn the army around and evacuate, but it was too late now. Huo Sang and his men also attacked quickly, rushing through the passage opened by the holy elephants, accurately finding the location of the necromancer, and then beheading him.

The encounter ended around sunset.

However, after such a battle, it was too late and it was impossible to move forward. The soldiers cleaned up the battlefield and set up camp to rest.

Hawthorne and the others were also preparing to rest, and during their dinner, the elephant king Du came over specially to express his condolences to them.

Everyone was quite happy to talk to this friendly elephant man. The two groups sat together and chatted for a while. After a long time, Annuo finally couldn't help but complain to the elephant man: "I have observed that the regular army under your command does not seem to be organized in an efficient manner?"

"Can we train more soldiers and strengthen our organization? If we continue like this, we may not be able to deal with some emergencies."

She said this because she really couldn't stand this situation. Wang Du also sighed: "There is no way. In Bora, not all five people can speak the common language. Especially the grassroots soldiers, they basically only speak their own hometown dialect."

Hawthorne nodded, thinking that this was not normal. Everyone must still speak their own local language. "So what? It just means they can't communicate with outsiders like us. As long as they can understand the orders from the commander, that's all."