Chapter 298 Raid in the Fog
After the Gatlin's army was annihilated, Kiram, the commander of the Orc Central Army, received the news immediately.
At this moment, Kiram knew that the two-wing flying and center blooming tactics he formulated had completely failed.
Although the Grodan Legion had broken through the Pratos defense line, facing the reinforcements of the Soros and Grizzlies, even if Grodan infiltrated the rear of the Harland territory, he could not play his due role. Instead, he would be besieged by the superior human forces and fall into the same fate as the Gatlin's army.
Kiram was an orc veteran who could take it or leave it. After realizing that the situation had changed, he immediately changed his mind and ordered Grodan to join the three battalions attacking the swamp basin, withdraw from the Pratos Fortress, and concentrate troops to threaten the Harland Territory from the flank.
After the orcs changed their strategy, they were soon discovered by the scouts of the Harland Territory. Now the Harland Territory has magic hot air balloons and lion-duck cavalry. Even if they cannot suppress the orcs in the air, they are no longer deaf and blind, and can detect a lot of enemy information.
After discovering the traces of Grodan's army, Richard immediately ordered Thoros to lead troops to reinforce the Swamp Basin and join the Swamp Basin garrison to stop the orcs.
As for the garrison mission of Grota River County, it can only be handed over to the soldiers of the Eagle Legion for the time being.
With Grodan joining the Swamp Basin orcs, there are now three orc armies on the front line of Harland Territory.
An orc army in the east is located in the north of Salt Lake County and is confronting Viscount Romon and Jennings. The Salt Lake County garrison has about 8,000 people.
In the northern area of the Central Military Station, one and a half orc armies have set up camp and built a solid camp. This force has firmly kept an eye on the main force of Harland Territory.
Harland Territory also stationed 15,000 regular troops in this direction to contain the orc army.
In the western swamp basin area, Grodan led an orc army to look at it covetously. His opponent is Thoros's army plus an infantry battalion, with a number of nearly 9,000 people. Two wizard towers were built in this area. The orcs suffered a great loss last time and did not dare to attack rashly.
With the complete annihilation of Gatlin's tribe, the Grizzlies were freed up, and Harland still had more than 20,000 reinforcements.
These 20,000 reinforcements were a heavy weight that could determine the outcome of a war at a critical moment.
As the spring rain ended, a thick fog suddenly came.
Richard stood on the wall of the military station fort, staring at the orc camp. Last night he had discussed with his father William to concentrate his forces to defeat the Kiram orcs in one fell swoop.
This morning, heavy fog fell from the sky, and the soldiers of Harland organized the offensive formation in an orderly manner.
March in the Eagle Mountains is relatively quiet. The grass and trees have not sprouted yet, the migratory birds have not returned, and the hibernating beasts have just awakened.
Richard came down from the wall. Because of the low visibility, he could only hear bursts of footsteps.
The fog was very thick, and the soldiers' line of sight could only be released seven or eight meters. It was not an easy task to march in such an environment.
In the dense fog, it seemed as if there were some monsters hiding. An indescribable uneasiness surged into their hearts. If they could not hear the footsteps and breathing of their companions, the soldiers would probably shout to dispel the terror in their hearts.
Marching in the thick fog is more difficult than marching late at night. Only soldiers with strong organizational skills can rush and march in the thick fog.
Richard is not a person who fears death. In his early years, he came to this ignorant and barbaric world and saw a lot of corpses and blood, which greatly affected Richard's mind.
Battles and scars again and again honed Richard's will and spirit, and gradually made him a true northern border man.
This time, taking advantage of the fog to attack the orcs, Richard once again took the lead and led the carefully selected soldiers to serve as the first echelon. He held the enchanted sword tightly and slowly approached the trench outside the orc camp.
Although the thick fog covered the sneak attack and made the human raid sudden, it suppressed the power of long-range attacks. Whether it was a trebuchet or a bow and arrow, it was difficult to aim at the orcs in the fog.
This time, the raid could only attack the enemy's strengths with their own weaknesses and defeat the orcs with hand-to-hand combat.
Richard saw that the first battalion was ready, and he shouted suddenly and threw the alchemical bomb in his hand into the orc camp.
Thousands of alchemical bombs exploded in the orc camp, and the light, fire, and smoke broke through the thick fog cage. In an instant, the orc camp suffered heavy casualties and heard shrill screams.
Kiram, the orc commander-in-chief, was a veteran. When the thick fog rose, he expected that humans might attack the camp. He had already issued orders in advance, and the two orc battalions stationed in the front camp made preparations in advance, wearing full armor to prevent human soldiers from sneaking into the camp.
But the orcs underestimated the firepower of Harland. They never expected that the soldiers of the first battalion actually carried 6,000 alchemical bombs, and threw 3,000 in the first wave, directly drowning the orcs with powerful firepower.
The two orc battalions at the front suffered heavy casualties from alchemical bombs before they encountered the enemy, with nearly 1,400 casualties.
The casualties before the battle were close to 30%, and they were about to collapse.
The orc army was well-informed and had never encountered such a terrible scene.
"Soldiers, the opportunity to defeat the orcs has come.
We, the people of the northern border, have countless relatives who have been killed, robbed, and bullied by the orcs. Today is the time for us to take revenge.
Please follow the flag of Earl Harland and kill all the orcs. Let us cheer loudly, and the glory belongs to Harland."
After a brief battlefield mobilization, Richard swung his enchanted sword and launched the first charge.
In the thick fog, Richard's superb archery skills were useless, but he was also a sixth-level warrior with excellent hand-to-hand combat skills. He easily jumped over the seven or eight-meter trench, slashed the long sword in his hand, and easily killed the tauren soldiers blocking the front.
The soldiers of the first brigade are experienced, and there are more than 300 veterans with more than ten years of military service. There are many professionals in this brigade, especially in the first squadron, many of whom are still serving as military positions such as squad leaders. Even in hand-to-hand combat, the combat effectiveness of this elite army has surpassed that of the orcs.
With Richard leading the charge, the professional officers took the lead in the charge. Their physical fitness was far superior to that of ordinary people. They could easily jump over the wide trench and kill the blocking orc soldiers.
In the blink of an eye, this elite soldier of the Harland Territory opened a gap, cut off the wooden fence of the orc camp, and burned many orc tents.
Following behind, two or three ordinary soldiers carried long wooden boards and placed them on the trench outside the camp, and followed the officers into the orc camp.
Because there were twelve battalions of orc main forces and four battalions of orc auxiliary soldiers stationed in this camp, there were about 32,000 orc troops stationed in this camp.
With so many soldiers stationed, the orcs naturally had to disperse their troops, and built five large camps densely two kilometers north of the military station fort.
The five camps together covered an area of about several kilometers, which was a few points larger than the area of the military station fort.
Richard led his troops to attack the vanguard camp at the forefront, which had about two battalions of orcs stationed in this camp.
The vanguard camp suffered heavy casualties from the alchemical bomb, and was attacked by the elite soldiers of the Harland territory. In addition, it was in a very oppressive fog environment with low visibility, and could not bear the losses and retreated.
Seeing the orcs in the forward camp retreating, Richard gave a loud order, lit torches in the thick fog to reorganize the formation, and then followed the footsteps of the orcs' fleeing soldiers to attack the orcs' middle camp.
The orcs' middle camp is the core of defense. There are four large groups of orcs stationed in it, and the orcs on the left and right camps are mutually supporting. The location of the camp is also on the hillside, which can be said to be easy to defend and difficult to attack.
After receiving the news of the defeat of the front camp, the fleeing orcs have begun to disrupt their own formation.
Kiram, the commander of the orcs' middle camp, was very decisive. He ordered to light a bonfire, dispel the thick fog, and attack the orcs who broke into the camp. Only through brutal suppression did he stabilize the formation.
The orcs are not a race with strong organizational ability, even in wars that require extreme organizational ability. The organizational ability of the orcs is always a weakness, and this race seems to be in chaos all the time.
But the legendary dog-headed man Kiram is an exception. He attaches great importance to organizational ability and is particularly strict in military management.
Gnolls are also a tribe with strong organizational ability among orcs, although they are not naturally gifted. Generally speaking, the combat effectiveness of adult gnolls is not as good as that of a 12-year-old human child.
Kiram's tribe is a dragon vein gnoll. He has a strong red dragon bloodline and a legendary third-level red dragon crystal. Through this dragon crystal, he has mastered a special magic circle, which continuously transforms ordinary gnolls into dragon vein gnolls.
Although the conversion efficiency is not high, Kiram has accumulated two battalions of dragon vein gnoll soldiers.
Dragon vein gnolls are natural professionals, and one-tenth of them can also awaken spell abilities. These two battalions of dragon vein gnolls are also the core of Kiram's combat effectiveness.
The dragon vein gnolls have clear hierarchies between superiors and subordinates. The superior officers give orders, and the subordinates execute them without hesitation. In an instant, more than six or seven hundred orcs were slaughtered.
Such a terrible scene immediately stunned the orcs.
After stabilizing their position, the orcs began to light a bonfire to dispel the thick fog. In such a foggy environment, it is not easy to light a bonfire. Even though there are a lot of dry wood in the orc camp, the humid air prevents the flame from burning and consumes the heat of the flame.
Seeing that it is difficult to make a fire, the orc shamans took action one after another. They released a series of fire attribute spells, and in an instant, a raging fire rose in the orc camp.
The blazing fire soared into the sky, evaporating the nearby water vapor.
At the same time, the orc shaman immediately released a spell to dispel the thick fog and dispersed the thick fog to the distance.
In just a few minutes, the thick fog near the orc camp has been reduced a lot, and the visibility has reached 60 to 70 meters.
Richard and his soldiers just approached the orc camp and immediately found that the thick fog was gradually weakening. He took a breath and looked around. There were already several small wounds on his body. The sharp stinging stimulated his already tired nerves and kept him awake at all times.
The fog was already thin, but there was still blood in the air.
Richard cast a healing spell on himself to stop the bleeding. He looked at the dragon vein kobolds forming a formation, and his face gradually became gloomy.
Kiram had been besieging the city for more than ten days, and the two sides had fought several exploratory wars.
Richard and Sophia even fought with Kiram briefly, leaving a deep impression on each other.
Harland's Warcraft cavalry had also fought against the dragon vein kobolds.
Seeing that the orcs' middle camp had no advantage to take, Richard immediately ordered to stabilize the position and slowly retreat.
In today's battle, taking advantage of the thick fog, Harland had already gained the upper hand, severely damaging two orc battalions and annihilating more than 3,000 orcs, while his own casualties did not exceed 400 at most, and only more than 100 soldiers died in the battle.
Seeing that the first battalion rushed too far forward and was out of the protection of the army, Richard decided to stop while he was ahead and not be greedy for merit.
The first battalion was preparing to retreat, but Kiram refused.
Today, the orcs suffered a great loss, which seriously affected their morale and military spirit. Seeing that the first battalion was in the front, Kiram decided to use his superior forces to eat up this enemy.
The two dragon vein dog-headed battalions quickly ran out of the camp. In order to ensure that everything was foolproof, Kiram decided to lead the troops himself.
The first battalion was the most elite infantry in the Harland territory, and most of the soldiers were experienced veterans. They knew that at this moment, they must not expose their backs to the dragon vein dog-headed people.
The dragon vein dog-headed people marched very fast. If they continued to retreat at this time, they would be besieged by the dragon vein dog-headed people halfway. At that time, they would fight in a retreating formation, and the casualties would be very heavy.
Even though they had already fought a battle and consumed a lot of physical strength, the soldiers of the first battalion quickly transformed into a defensive formation.
The sun gradually rose, the fog became thinner, and the visibility became higher and higher. Many soldiers immediately took off the strong bows on their backs and shot feather arrows to kill the Dragon Vein Dogheads.
At the same time, the soldiers of the First Battalion took out the remaining alchemical bombs and prepared to throw them. There were about 20,000 alchemical bombs in reserve in the Harland Territory, of which 8,000 were distributed to the front-line garrisons in Grotta River County, Salt Lake County, Swamp Basin, Pratos, etc. The remaining 12,000 were partly in the hands of the soldiers in the military station fort and partly in Richard's Starlight Bottle.
In order to fight this surprise attack, Richard made a lot of preparations in advance and mobilized 6,000 alchemical bombs to distribute them to the First Battalion.
In this battle, except for the grenadiers, ordinary soldiers were assigned two alchemical bombs, and the intensity of firepower was already amazing.
After three rounds of arrows, a large number of alchemical bombs were thrown at the Dragon Vein Doghead Army.
The attack on the orc camp consumed 3,000 alchemical bombs, and the remaining 3,000 were all greeted on the Dragon Vein Dogheads.
Although the Dragon Vein Gnolls were powerful and fast, they were limited by the magic level and industrial capacity of the orcs and could not have sophisticated weapons and equipment.
Seeing the alchemical bombs coming, they could only use wooden shields to resist. Although the Dragon Vein Gnolls were all professionals, the losses in an instant were also very heavy.
Just the casualties that could be seen with the naked eye exceeded 700 to 800.
Seeing such a huge loss of his elite soldiers, Kiram widened his eyes in disbelief.