Chapter 366: Deep Into the Grassland
When Richard arrived at the battlefield with three infantry battalions, the orcs were already surrounded on three sides. Being targeted by the Warcraft Cavalry Battalion, the orcs could not retreat at all, and were soon surrounded and annihilated by the coalition forces of Harland and the nobles of the Geda Province.
In the East Grotta war zone, the Sutton Detachment cooperated closely with the Martin Division and annihilated eight orc battalions, and the total orc force lost 16,000.
In the West Grotta direction, the 13th Orc Legion attacked the Canyon Castle for thirteen days. The Soros Division withstood the test and withstood the fierce attack of the orcs. After more than ten days of siege, although the orcs did not lose a battalion-level unit in an organized manner, the total force was reduced by 6,000.
In the direction of Nitt Canyon, the Jennings Division cooperated with the Marcus Division heading north from the Hurricane Castle and also won a big victory, annihilating 8,000 orcs.
Richard destroyed the 17th Legion of the Orcs in the main battlefield of Hurricane Canyon in one battle, annihilating this fully equipped elite legion of orcs and killing more than 26,000 enemies.
In the southern foothills of Pratos, Richard led the southern detachment to cooperate with the noble coalition led by Viscount Romen, and also eliminated five orc battalions, killing more than 10,000 enemies.
There was no fierce battle in the direction of the Snow Mountain Castle, but the orcs had already known that failure was inevitable, and they all planned to retreat.
Up to now, the war has been fought. Only on the front line of the Duke of Harland, the orcs have lost more than 30 battalions in an organized manner, and the main force has been annihilated by more than 70,000. The failure of the war is inevitable.
In the Kaia River Basin, 11 orc battalions were besieged by the Mad Lion and the Northern Territory Legions, and the situation was also extremely bad.
Less than 20 days after the war began, the orc front line had been shaken completely. Although the orc legions in the east and west directions had some results, they could not fill the gap at all.
Including a legion surrounded near the Flame Castle, the orcs lost four and a half main legions in this battle.
Although the orcs have a large army, it is still very difficult to replenish four and a half legions at a time.
Although the maturity period of orcs is generally short, and the dog-headed people can reach adulthood in three or four years, it is not difficult to replenish ordinary soldiers, but it is not easy to train professional officers, and it takes a long time.
After annihilating the dog-headed people on the southern foot of the Eagle Mountains, Richard led more than 10,000 troops to reinforce the Flame Castle.
In order to grab credit, the legion commander of the Northern Legion, Raber, did not support the Harland Territory, causing a large area of land in the Harland Territory to be looted by the orcs. Although some were rescued from the orc captives later, the total population was massacred by the orcs for more than 8,000.
The loss of materials is even more difficult to count, and tens of thousands of houses were burned down. Many corpses were thrown into the wells by the orcs, which were completely polluted. The bridges were burned by the orcs, the reservoirs were dug up by the orcs, and most of the food in this area was burned.
According to rough statistics, the loss converted into gold coins exceeded one million.
The southern foot of the Eagle Mountains was originally a rich area in the Harland Territory. Although there is no industry in this area, the agricultural conditions are very good. In addition, it is not far from Black River Fort and Flame Fort, and can be connected through the Kaiya River. The cargo flow is very large and has a relatively developed water transportation industry.
As a result, years of accumulation were destroyed by a war. According to estimates by territory officials, it will take at least three years for the economy to recover to its original scale.
Because of this, Richard and Rab have already had a knot in their hearts.
The reason why Richard sent more troops to Flame Fort was actually to eliminate the hidden dangers in this direction.
If the hidden dangers were not eliminated, he led his troops north to attack the rear of the orcs, and the royal army deliberately allowed the orcs to enter the Harland Territory to plunder, and the situation would be very ugly at that time.
This is not that he maliciously speculated on others. This time, the loss of Harland Territory was not light because Richard trusted the Northern Legion too much.
It is better to rely on yourself than on others. Only by forcing the Northern Legion and the Mad Lion Legion to fight a bloody battle with the orcs can this hidden danger be eliminated.
Seeing Richard leading his troops over, Raber, in order to avoid looking embarrassed, immediately ordered the Northern Legion to attack the orc camp and annihilate the orc army before Richard.
According to the practice of the Grant Kingdom, Richard's status is much higher than that of the main legion commander. Once Richard reinforces, he will definitely get the battlefield command.
In order to avoid Richard's intervention in the command, the Northern Legion and the Mad Lion Legion fought bravely and annihilated the orc army. Because of the tight time, the Northern Legion and the Mad Lion Legion suffered more casualties, with a total loss of 9,000 people.
Richard led his troops halfway and received news that the orcs in the direction of Flame Castle had been annihilated. He left two infantry battalions, appointed Viscount Romen as the commander of the coalition forces, and Captain Conde as the deputy commander, commanding the coalition forces to guard the west of Harland's territory.
Richard led the Warcraft Cavalry Battalion and the Guard Battalion all the way north, rushing into the north of the Eagle Mountains from the Hurricane Canyon. Although Richard is only in his thirties, he has rich experience in leading troops to fight. He has been in battle for eighteen years since he first went into battle at the age of sixteen. It is rare to find a veteran with eighteen years of war experience in the entire northern border area.
This is the second time Richard has crossed the Eagle Mountains to fight in the past eighteen years.
The last time he crossed the Eagle Mountains was fifteen years ago. In that battle, the commander of the Northern Army, Donny Martins, set a trap and killed the commander of the Orc Front, the legendary wild boar man Gilat, and used heavy catapults for the first time to annihilate a main orc army.
Relying on the prestige of this battle, the army of the Grant Kingdom crossed the Eagle Mountains along the Kaia River and the Kelaniya Valley and entered the heart of the Orc Empire to plunder.
Through this battle, Richard gained nearly ten thousand people and accelerated the development of the Harland territory.
The scene fifteen years ago was right in front of him, and Richard's thoughts seemed to have returned to fifteen years ago. In that battle, he and Sofia were just starting out, and they were still small figures in the Northern Expedition Army, responsible for harassment and guerrilla warfare.
Fifteen years have passed, and things have changed. Donny Martins, the commander-in-chief of the Northern Expedition, has died in battle for many years, and the Northern Legion has changed several commanders. His father William was transferred to the south, and he became the commander-in-chief of this Northern Expedition.
The orcs attacked the Harland territory and lost 70,000 soldiers on this front. The rear was already empty to the extreme.
Richard led the army all the way north, as if entering an uninhabited place, sweeping through the orc territory like a whirlwind, and all the orc tribes encountered along the way were killed by Richard.
There is no mercy at all in the battle for survival between races.
Eighteen years of cruel war have changed Richard's three views to a certain extent, making him hard-hearted.
Regardless of whether they were old or hungry orc babies, they all died under the butcher's knife under this cruel military order.
Wherever the army passed, the orc tribes were killed.
Richard's army rushed northward and headed straight for the core city of the orcs, Prilan.
Most of the orcs on the northern prairie live a nomadic life. Although the orc tribes have territories and winter and summer pastures, they have no fixed bases.
Prilan is a rare settled city on the prairie, with hundreds of thousands of orc nobles living nearby.
Although orcs have extraordinary bloodlines and far more professionals than humans, they also have defects in the evolution process. Most orcs' feet are far less flexible than humans, they do not have a pair of flexible hands, and are not good at making tools and developing manufacturing.
Unless the orc civilization can develop to a certain extent and create high-IQ artificial intelligence and mechanical arms, this shortcoming can be made up.
Since more than two thousand years ago, when humans and orcs fought the first war, the orc leaders discovered this weakness.
The orc leadership has thought of many ways to improve the situation. The first is to capture humans and crossbreed with them to give birth to the half-orc race.
The second is to cooperate with the magic countries on the southwest coast to serve as blood test subjects for magicians, and use the magicians' research to improve blood and body shape.
The third is to capture a large number of humans as slaves, and use human creativity and hands-on ability to improve this defect.
For so many years, the orcs have invaded every three years, and most of the captured human slaves have been escorted to several core cities in the rear.
The largest orc city in the north of the Grant Kingdom is Prilan.
Because Prilan has a large number of human slaves, a large amount of arable land has been reclaimed, and the settled population is very large, the orc nobles basically settled in the city of Prilan.
Seeing that the army of Harland Territory was divided into three routes, the vanguard was already 80 kilometers away from Prilan, and the command headquarters of the Eastern Front of the Orcs was now in chaos.
In just over a decade, two legendary commanders of the Eastern Front died in battle.
Due to the heavy losses, the Orc King Court did not bother to send the Duke down to serve as the commander of the front.
The Orc King Court did not send anyone down, and the Grassland Governor's District could only send a ninth-level giant owl to serve as the acting commander of the front.
This acting commander has not been in office for long and has a shallow foundation. This year is his first time to command hundreds of thousands of troops to fight.
Although the giant commander attaches great importance to the Harland Territory, he has sent four and a half legions on this front, adjusted the offensive direction of the elite legion, and stockpiled more than 100,000 main forces.
The orcs originally planned to break through the defense line of the Harland Territory and recapture the mountain stronghold of the Losa Basin, which is extremely important in terms of geographical location. Unexpectedly, in three years, the population of the Harland Territory has doubled, and the number of regular troops has expanded from less than 20,000 to 50,000.
The most critical problem is that Richard used the Starlight Necklace for the first time on the front battlefield. Three consecutive starlight bombs severely damaged the elite legion of the orcs, and then commanded the army to annihilate the 17th Legion.
A small number of defeated soldiers from the 17th Legion fled back to the rear and reported the situation to the Commander of the Giant Owl. The survivors' description frightened the Commander of the Giant Owl and he did not dare to fight a decisive battle with the army of the Harland Territory.
In fact, there were not many orcs in the Prilan area. The reserve forces roughly assembled 19 battalions, with a total of less than 40,000. The retreating 13th Legion also had 18,000 elite soldiers. Together with some other messy defeated soldiers, the number of orc troops organized by the Commander of the Giant Owl exceeded 70,000.
The Northern Prairie is considered a rich place in the Orc Empire. The orc commander of this governor's district has a strong influence in the Orc King's Court. There are tens of thousands of orc tribes living on this vast prairie, with a total population of more than 150 million, which is more than the five human countries near the Northern Prairie combined.
However, most of the orcs are low-end populations such as dog-headed people and sheep-bodied people. The orc race with strong combat power has a low fertility rate and is very rare. Most of them still live in urban areas with the best conditions.
Now Richard led the army of Harland to approach Prilan. After thinking for a long time, the commander of the giant owl decided to abandon the city. The overall decision was to fortify the city and clear the countryside. Before the information about the starlight bomb was clear, he would not fight a decisive battle with the army of Harland.
As soon as the orc army fled, Harland easily captured Prilan.
Although many human slaves in the Prilan area were killed and relocated by the orcs, Harland's army still rescued more than 100,000.
After conquering the Prilan area, Richard let the soldiers rest for a few days and counted the results of the battle.
After entering the northern part of the Eagle Mountains, the Harland Territory army killed a large number of orcs, and the number of orcs, including various races, exceeded one million. They captured more than a dozen orc supply stations, and rescued 260,000 human slaves with the spoils of Prilan.
When he arrived at the city of Prilan, Richard found that a large number of human slaves were slaughtered by orcs. These slaves were mainly old people and children, and it seemed that they did not have the physical strength to migrate with the orcs.
Seeing this scene, Richard's face suddenly turned pale. He ordered sternly: "Kill all the orc captives, and pile up their heads to build a Jingguan."
In addition to the factors of the racial war, Richard issued this genocide policy because of the lack of food.
Entering the northern part of the Eagle Mountains, supply became very difficult. Agriculture on the northern prairie developed slowly, and the orc tribes mainly relied on animal husbandry. There was a lack of food supplements for marching and fighting, and soldiers needed to plunder.
Fortunately, the Harland Territory has flying arms such as the Wyvern Knight, the Lion Knight, and the Magic Hot Air Balloon Group, which can find the traces of the orc tribe through high-altitude reconnaissance, leaving the enemy nowhere to hide.
In order to facilitate the supply of the army, Richard ordered the second-line corps to drive the sheep raised in the Harland Territory to the north of the Eagle Mountains, using goat milk and mutton as military rations and the supply method of nomadic peoples, so as to continue to fight in the northern prairie.
After Purilan killed all the orcs, the army of the Harland Territory continued to go deep into the north for a period of time, looking for the main force of the orcs for a decisive battle.
The commander of the Giant Owl commanded the orc army and always adopted a strategy of avoiding battle. Compared with humans, the orc race is more hardworking and can survive longer in the wild.
For the next month, the two sides chased each other, as if playing hide-and-seek on the prairie.
Along the way, as long as the orc tribe was found, Richard would order it to be killed.
Under this genocide policy, the Harland Territory army entered the northern prairie for a month and killed more than three million orcs of various races.
They penetrated more than 800 kilometers into the northern prairie until the food consumption was too great and the number of sheep decreased to below the danger line, then they stopped and slowly retreated to the north of the Eagle Mountains.