Chapter 270: A Great Victory

After making a plan, Viscount Nero immediately arranged for the officers to take action. The nobles gathered the cavalry and collected all the packhorses in the castle to carry food and their families.

Viscount Nero temporarily promoted a group of soldiers with good performance to follow him out of the city to contain Richard's army.

Early the next morning, the defenders opened the city gates, slowly walked out of the castle, and deployed their troops.

Richard was shocked when he received the intelligence from the scouts.

"Viscount Nero has been defending the castle for several months and has been very cautious. I wonder why he wants to take his soldiers out of the city? Has the food in the city been exhausted? However, through aerial reconnaissance, the enemy still has a lot of food storage points, and should be able to hold out for a while. Why is he so eager to leave the city?

Could it be that Baron Sharp really guessed it right? There are deep contradictions accumulated within the enemy? Yes, Viscount Nero also commands the noble coalition, and they have different ideas just like us. The siege has lasted for more than two months, and now everyone is in trouble. The commander also has to consider the thoughts of the people below. It is estimated that the nobles in the city can't wait and force Viscount Nero to fight out of the city."

Richard thought to himself and thought of several ideas in his mind. Now the morale of the three provinces' coalition is not very high, and today's battle may rely on the soldiers of the Harland territory.

"Pass on my order. The infantry of Harland and the noble coalition of Geda Province will be the center army, the noble coalition of Rah Province will be the right wing, and all the cavalry in the camp will be assembled and commanded by Baron Soros. The cavalry will be on the left wing. Soldiers, follow me out of the camp to meet the enemy."

After Richard gave the order, the soldiers quickly assembled, formed a dense military formation, and slowly walked out of the camp.

After the soldiers stood in formation, Richard shouted: "We left our hometown in February. It has been more than three months now. I know everyone misses their families. Fighting outside for several months, living conditions are difficult, and you have to face sacrifice at any time. It is also human nature to miss home.

In the past three months, we have won many battles, eliminated the enemy several times, and grabbed a lot of spoils. I know in my heart that everyone has gained a lot and is unwilling to fight the enemy.

But the process of war is not subject to our will. We don't want to fight, but the enemy is unwilling to let us go. The enemy wants to seek revenge on us and rob our spoils. , we have to keep our gold coins and slaves, and the only way is to kill the enemy.

I, Richard Harland, am your commander, and I am willing to set an example for everyone. I will stand in the first row of soldiers and lead you to win this war.

This battle is about advancing but not retreating. No matter who takes a step back, the swords and guns of the supervisory team will not recognize anyone. If I take a step back, please supervise me to chop off my head and commemorate the dead souls.

Let's cheer, victory belongs to us! "

Richard's pre-war mobilization still played a certain role. He had a high prestige in the army and stood in the first row, which greatly boosted the morale and military spirit.

After the two armies formed their array, they slowly began to approach.

The first to be launched was still the heavy catapult. The magicians of Harland's territory had marked the trajectory in advance. They commanded the auxiliary squadron to start the catapult and projected alchemical bombs one by one.

In an instant, hundreds of alchemical bombs were projected, and more than half exploded in the enemy's army, causing heavy casualties to the enemy.

Just one round of alchemical bombs caused more than a hundred casualties among Viscount Nero's soldiers.

Seeing that the catapults were still firing, the grassroots officers under Viscount Nero kept urging the soldiers.

"Raise your shields, raise your shields, raise your shields quickly. Hide your body behind the shields and use them to protect yourself."

Although the alchemical bombs in the Harland Territory were not as powerful as the original ones, they could not be blocked by a layer of shields. Although the soldiers raised their shields to reduce casualties, the shrapnel splashed by the explosion of the alchemical bombs penetrated the shields under the continuous projection of the catapults, causing heavy casualties.

"All speed up, and walk another fifty steps to avoid the range of the catapults."

The grassroots officers kept shouting, and the soldiers' pace quickened a bit.

In just a few minutes, the soldiers led by Viscount Nero were hit by more than 200 alchemical bombs, and more than 300 soldiers were killed and injured.

The wounded soldiers wailed miserably, but in the fierce war, neither the enemy nor us could care about them.

The noble officers of the army under Viscount Nero were basically withdrawn to participate in the breakout battle. The front battlefield lacked officers to command, and after suffering casualties, it immediately became a bit chaotic.

The messengers under Viscount Nero kept shouting, conveying the commander's orders, inspiring morale and stabilizing the army.

As the two armies slowly approached, they entered the archer's range.

For a while, both sides drew their bows and arrows, and a rain of arrows shot at the enemy.

"Raise your shield, raise your shield, shield holders pay attention to their feet to avoid being tripped by obstacles. Observe the situation around you, pay attention to protecting your comrades' flanks, and maintain the integrity of the line."

"When shooting arrows, your hands must be steady, not nervous, and your hand strength must be relaxed."

"Keep your ears erect, listen carefully to the orders, and the formation must be neat and not scattered."

"Don't be fast, don't move too fast, keep your eyes on your comrades, and form a tight formation."

Richard stood in the first row, listening to the orders issued by the veterans under his command.

The soldiers of Harland Territory were not only well-equipped, but also had a higher rate of wearing armor than the enemy. They also had more experience in warfare and a more stable mentality.

In the long-range archery duel, the soldiers of Harland Territory also had the upper hand.

The enemy lacks professional officers, and it is difficult for ordinary feather arrows with enchanted crossbows to penetrate the enchanted armor worn by the front-line soldiers.

After several rounds of shooting, Viscount Nero's soldiers suffered more and more casualties, and their faces became panic.

The two sides were getting closer and closer, and they entered the range of the grenadiers.

At Richard's command, the infantry of Harland Territory threw alchemical bombs one after another, and once again successfully hit the enemy hard.

Several rounds of long-range attacks caused more than 600 casualties in Viscount Nero's central army.

Viscount Nero's central army had a total of only 3,000 people, and with such heavy casualties, the morale of the army was immediately unstable. Seeing that the melee was approaching, Viscount Nero took the lead and launched a counterattack with some soldiers.

The soldiers in the central army were the most elite and took the lead in fighting the enemy. Burton on the right wing commanded 5,000 soldiers from the province of Rah and also faced the enemy. Burton's opponent's line was relatively weak, with only 2,000 soldiers.

As soon as the two sides fought, Burton gained the upper hand by relying on the advantage of numbers.

The left wing was led by Soros, who led two thousand cavalrymen and rushed directly to the enemy. The number of enemies was only two thousand, and the front line was not particularly complete, so they could not stop the elite cavalry charge at all.

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Especially the 150 Warcraft cavalrymen led by Soros, whose impact was extremely strong, defeated an enemy squadron in an instant, opened a gap, and broke through the enemy's army formation.

In just a few minutes, the enemy on the left wing could no longer maintain the front line and fell into an embarrassing situation.

Just after Soros led the cavalry to join the battle, a cavalry suddenly rushed out of Nero Castle. This cavalry did not entangle with the enemy and fled out of the city in a panic.

After Soros defeated the enemy on the left wing, this enemy had already run far away, and many people also escaped from Nero Castle.

Soros weighed the pros and cons and decided to give up chasing the enemy. He thought very clearly that once the troops were divided to chase this enemy, they would inevitably fall into fierce resistance, and the casualties of the three-province coalition would increase.

In the current situation, the morale of the three-province coalition was not high, and they could not bear too high casualties, so it was better to let this enemy go.

Seeing the enemy escape, Soros immediately ordered half of the cavalry to block Nero Castle to prevent the people in the castle from escaping in the chaos.

Soros knew that there were nearly 100,000 people in the castle, and these people would be the spoils of the three-province coalition. Compared with these 100,000 people, the fleeing enemy was insignificant. Even if these people wanted to take revenge, the headache was Duke Jonathan, the new noble who occupied this territory.

The remaining half of the cavalry, led by Soros, attacked the central army led by Viscount Nero from the side and rear.

Seeing the cavalry attacking from the side and rear, the central army led by Viscount Nero was already unable to hold on due to heavy casualties. Now the situation has become worse. Many soldiers abandoned their weapons, immediately collapsed, and fled to all directions.

In an instant, the army was defeated. Viscount Nero sighed, slapped his horse hard, and fled from the battlefield alone.

Viscount Nero was an epic knight of the ninth order, and his combat power was extremely strong. Although there were only a few soldiers following him, he still easily pierced through the encirclement of the cavalry, killed more than a dozen soldiers, and successfully broke out.

Soros was about to chase with the Warcraft cavalry, but was stopped by Richard's order.

Although the battle lasted for a short time, Richard had seen clearly the lethality of the ninth-order knight. If he wanted to kill this person, at least dozens of Warcraft cavalry would have to be sacrificed, and there might be important officers who died at his hands.

Now that the battle has been won, Richard is unwilling to make trouble to avoid the enemy's desperate actions, resulting in heavy casualties of the Warcraft cavalry. He thought for a while and decided to let this person go.

This battle can be called a win-win situation for both sides of the battle. Most of the nobles in the central part of Stanik broke through successfully and saved their lives. The three-province coalition led by Richard also defeated the enemy, captured Nero Castle, and completed Duke Jonathan's military order.

Viscount Nero was wearing gorgeous armor, and he looked like a big shot. As soon as he escaped, the army was immediately in chaos. The noble coalition in the center and the right wing immediately scattered. Many soldiers fled into Nero Castle to protect their families.

Soros led the cavalry and chased the fleeing soldiers into Nero Castle, cooperating with the infantry to enter the city to control the situation first.

After controlling the four gates, Richard immediately issued an order to count the casualties, clean up the battlefield, and capture prisoners.

By noon, the staff officer had returned to the central army tent and had counted the casualties.

"What are the casualties?"

"Forty-one of our soldiers were killed and 116 were injured. The noble coalition of the province of Gedda, commanded by Baron Sharp, was killed 28 and 59 were injured. The noble coalition of the province of Rah, commanded by Sir Burton, was killed 71 and 187 were injured."

After listening to the report of the staff officer, Richard nodded gently and said, "The total casualties are about 500, and the number of soldiers killed is less than 150."

"Your Excellency, under your command, we won a brilliant victory. More than 800 enemies were killed and more than 3,400 prisoners were captured. More than 2,000 defeated soldiers fled into Nero Castle, 500 to 600 fled into the wilderness, and only about 500 enemies broke through."

"Although we have won the battle, we cannot relax now. The defeated soldiers in Nero Castle must be counted as soon as possible, and the food in the city must be counted immediately."

Richard is the commander of the coalition forces, and his vision is longer than others. Although we have won the battle, it took several months to seize the internal flaws of the enemy and defeat the opponent. But he himself was also very clear about his own situation.

Now the three-province coalition army is already a well-looted army. After several months of expedition, the homesickness has become serious. From top to bottom, no one wants to fight a hard battle, and the morale of the army is far worse than a few months ago.

Now if you want to restore morale, you can only indulge the soldiers to rob and kill, and indulge the accumulated anger of the soldiers.

But in this way, military discipline cannot be maintained, and when the soldiers return to the territory, it will become more and more difficult to manage.

Richard is unwilling to do this unless it is absolutely necessary. Fortunately, this battle has won an unprecedented victory. Relying on the prestige brought by the victory, Richard can still barely control the soldiers and maintain the seriousness of military discipline.

After taking down the Nero Castle, Richard decided to let the soldiers rest for three days.

Three days later, the three-province coalition army had counted the prisoners, and the situation in the Nero Castle calmed down.

Richard asked the staff officer to roughly count and found that there were more than 90,000 people in the city, more than 5,600 prisoners, and about 700 light and seriously wounded.

Through observation, the staff officers found that the prisoners were unstable and worried about being slaughtered by the coalition forces. After reporting the situation, Richard immediately ordered the doctors and mages accompanying the army to take time to treat the injured prisoners.

This incident relieved the mental pressure of the prisoners and made them put down some of their worries.

At noon, Richard ordered the main officers to hold a meeting at the city lord's mansion.

"Have you counted the grain in Nero Castle?"

"There are more than 20 warehouses in the castle, with a total of 1,900 tons of grain, which is only enough for the people in the city to eat for about a month." The logistics staff stood up and introduced the grain reserve situation.

This year, the central region of Stanik experienced war, which delayed the farming season. The nearby nobles implemented the order of fortifying the walls and clearing the fields, and concentrated the main population in Nero Castle. The land of more than 10,000 square kilometers nearby was almost harvested.

Some of the hundreds of thousands of people in this area were captured by the coalition forces of the three provinces, some were concentrated in Nero Castle, some fled to the west and south of Stanik, and a small part fled into the mountains and became savages. Many people also died on the way due to war and hunger.

After several months of brutal war, more than 10,000 square kilometers of land near Nero's castle were covered with bones and no roosters could be heard for thousands of miles.

Although Richard led his soldiers to sow some seeds during the siege, no one cultivated them. In addition, there was insufficient rain this year, so the summer harvest yield was pitifully small, which was almost a drop in the bucket compared to the population of more than 100,000.