Chapter 173 Cutting Off the Retreat

Zakli won a great victory, which played a decisive role in the safety of Geda Province. ɱ

Kiram has eight orc legions under his command, with more than 170,000 main orcs and 80,000 auxiliary soldiers. The war has continued to this day, and there are about 140,000 main orcs and 60,000 auxiliary soldiers.

The Grant royal family is the strongest in the Rah Province, followed by Geda Province, and the weakest in Gascoigne Province.

Rah Province not only has the main force of the Grizzly Legion, but also the two second-line legions of Flying Eagle and Flying Swallow, plus the strongest noble coalition, which has tied down three orc legions, 60,000 main forces and 30,000 auxiliary soldiers.

Even Kiram's headquarters is placed in the Rah Province.

In addition, the Dukedom of Jonathan, which borders the Rah Province, is the most powerful duchy in the Grant Kingdom.

Once the war in the Rah Province is unfavorable, it can also ask for reinforcements from the Dukedom of Jonathan.

Kiram dare not reduce the troops in this direction at all.

If troops are transferred from the Rah Province, the Grant royal family's army will immediately be unable to suppress it.

In addition, in the northeast of the Rah Province, there is the Earldom of Roger.

The Earldom of Roger is not weak. With the support of the Dukedom of Jonathan, it withstood the attack of an orc army.

The troops that Kiram invested in the Earldom of Roger are about 20,000.

If he does not intend to conquer the Earldom of Roger, he can draw several battalions from this direction to join the battle in the Geda Province.

For the remaining hundreds of thousands of troops, the orcs in the Geda Province invested a legion, eight battalions, and about 50,000 auxiliary troops.

This direction suffered the heaviest losses, with 14,000 main forces killed by Zakli, and 5,000 killed by the army commanded by Richard in two battles. Counting the scattered orcs, the orcs' losses have exceeded 30,000.

Now there are only 17,000 troops left, of which 6,000 are auxiliary troops with weak combat effectiveness.

In the Geda Province, the noble coalition of Black River County commanded by Richard has 3,000 troops, the noble coalition commanded by Viscount Luomen has 5,000 troops, and the main force of the Northern Army has not been damaged. There are still 20,000 people.

The comparison of military strength and combat effectiveness has been unbalanced.

In order to maintain the front line, reinforcements must be drawn to the Geda Province.

Kiram has invested heavily in the Gascoigne Province this time. Including an orc army that attacked Count Martins, the total number exceeds 84,000. Among them, the main orcs are about 54,000.

Although there were many casualties in the battle, there are still 48,000 main forces and 26,000 auxiliary forces.

Of these 48,000 main forces, 30,000 are used to suppress the main force of the Mad Lion Legion in Gascoigne Province, and 10,000 fight against the noble coalition. The remaining 8,000 are ready to be deployed to the Duke of Edward to support the operations of another orc front.

This time, the Central Front Army commanded by Kiram is the main force in the invasion of the Grant Kingdom, and the orcs in the other two directions need to cooperate with the Central Front Army.

Now that he has received the letter of assistance from Derensi and Gunderson, Kiram can only take care of himself first, and has drawn 8,000 orc main forces from five battalions in Gascoigne Province for support. He also drew 5,000 auxiliary troops to fight with these support troops.

The Felix Castle where Richard was stationed was not far from Black River Castle, and he received the battle report the next day.

After the orcs retreated, Richard resumed communication with Black River Castle, and he immediately sent the report of merit, along with more than 5,000 orc heads.

Now the remnants of the orc army of Drentsi and Gunderson are besieged by Zakley in Graveson Castle.

Richard and Viscount Romen also received orders from Zakley.

Zakley ordered them to join forces, march north from Fort William, station troops at the northern entrance of Harland Valley, cut off the orcs' food supply, and block the orcs' reinforcements.

The Northern Legion prepared to besiege Graveson Castle for a long time and eat up the orcs in western Drentsi.

Exposing your back to the enemy is a very dangerous thing.

Because the orc army of Drentsi had an advantage in manpower in the early stage and fought too smoothly, they ignored this weakness and made this serious mistake.

After receiving the order, Richard joined Viscount Romon, and 8,000 soldiers marched north along Fort William and arrived at the north entrance of the canyon again.

The north entrance of Harland Canyon is a three-way intersection, which is considered to be a relatively important traffic route in the Eagle Mountains.

Gunderson once established a military station here and left a battalion to garrison.

However, this battalion was defeated by Richard. Because the situation was unclear and the territory was threatened by Gunderson's troops, Richard gave up this strategic point after the war.

Although the orcs have now recaptured the military station, there are only a few hundred garrisons in it.

These hundreds of garrisons were all defeated by Richard's men. Of course, they could not withstand the attack of the 8,000 noble coalition forces of Geda Province. They were quickly killed and their heads were exchanged for merits.

Richard and Viscount Romon's coalition forces cut off the retreat route in the west of Deren. Zakley led the Northern Army to surround the remnants of the western army of Deren in Graveson, but was unable to attack the city.

The main force of the Northern Army is more than 20,000 people, and there are about 17,000 orcs in Graveson Castle. The orcs in the castle still have the strength to fight. If they want to conquer this fortress, the Northern Army must kill at least half of its soldiers.

After analyzing the situation on the battlefield, Zakli believed that the time for a decisive battle was not yet ripe, so he chose a long-term siege.

Although there was not much food stored in Graveson Castle, there were about 8,000 captured human slaves. The orcs could rely on cannibalism to survive for two or three months.

It sounds cruel, but this is a life-and-death racial war.

It is not uncommon for people to eat each other in war, let alone orcs cannibalizing each other.

Time passed day by day, and in late April, five brigades of orcs had completed the 300-kilometer mountain road and arrived at the northern entrance of Harland Canyon from the Earl of Martins.

Facing the well-prepared noble coalition, the eight thousand orc reinforcements had no chance of winning and could not break through the defense of the noble coalition.

In the past ten days, under the leadership of Richard, Richard strengthened the fortifications by using the camps left by the orcs.

The orcs made a tentative attack and retreated after suffering hundreds of casualties.

The noble coalition of Geda Province blocked the northern entrance of Harland Canyon. If you want to bypass it, you have to walk at least 200 kilometers of mountain roads.

The logistics line is too long, and the food route may be cut off at any time.

If you want to rescue the remnants of Derensi, you must pull out this nail.

To pull out the nail, five battalions of orcs are not enough.

The commander of the orc reinforcements once again sent the harpy and wrote a letter for help to Kiram.

As time dragged on to May, the situation in the northern border of the Grant Kingdom changed again.

Duke Jonathan led his troops to repel the orcs.

The orc Eastern Front could not resist and had already moved closer to Kiram.

In order to deal with the enemy in the east, Kiram now has no reinforcements to use.

For a time, the Geda Province was caught in a long-term sit-in war. No matter humans or orcs, no one took the initiative to attack.

Instead, they kept sending scouts to investigate the actions of the other side.

In order to deal with the harpy, Richard and Soros even led a small group of scouts to set traps and hunted six or seven harpy.

The harpy suffered a loss and quickly learned a lesson. They did not easily lower their altitude, and the efficiency of obtaining intelligence from the orcs was also reduced.

Time passed slowly until July.