Chapter 368: Fierce Fighting in the South

Richard adjusted the battle lines in the north and drew the borders, while the Grant Kingdom's army in the south was caught in a fierce battle.

With the transfer of the Northern Border and Flying Swallow Army to the south, the Grant royal family has already stockpiled six main army corps in the three southern provinces.

Although the three southern provinces are rich areas with a total population of more than 1.4 million. However, the supply of such a huge demand is still unaffordable. After the outbreak of the war, the resources are entirely provided by the royal territory directly under the jurisdiction of the royal family.

The six army corps of 150,000 troops are divided into two fronts, east and west.

The east front is mainly composed of three royal guards, with the eighth-level golden knight Galen Grant as the commander.

Galen Grant is a rising star of the royal family. He is only in his forties and his blood relationship is not far from the Roger Kingdom. His grandfather and King Roger's grandfather, Duke Brena, are brothers.

Although he is a close descendant of the royal family, Galen is not yet a hereditary baron.

This person also has a comrade-in-arms relationship with Richard. When Richard served in the Sixth Battalion of the Mad Lion Legion, Garen served as the deputy captain of the Fourth Battalion. At that time, Garen had just been promoted to the fourth rank and was sent to the Northern Frontier for training.

Officers with royal blood often serve in the Guards at the beginning. When they reach a certain level, they will be trained in the Northern Frontier to let them experience the test of war. After withstanding the test of war, they will be gradually promoted to command the Royal Guards.

In fact, a large part of the officers of the Guards Corps are also selected from the officers and soldiers of the Northern Frontier.

For example, when Garen was transferred to the Guards, he had served in the Mad Lion Legion for fifteen years, served as deputy captain for three years, captain for eight years, and deputy legion commander for four years. His old comrades were all over the Mad Lion Legion. After he was transferred to the Guards Corps Commander, he naturally had to mobilize a group of old subordinates to enter the Guards system to facilitate his command of operations.

Although Garen and Richard knew each other, their relationship was very ordinary. After all, Richard had served in the Mad Lion Legion for a relatively short time. On the contrary, he and Richard's third uncle Bernie were real comrades-in-arms and colleagues.

Garen and Bernie served as captains in the Mad Lion Corps and worked together for more than ten years. Now they occasionally communicate. They are old comrades who have rolled through blood and fire, and their friendship can stand the test.

Among the three commanders of the Eastern Guard Corps, Garen's qualifications are relatively shallow. But in order to cultivate fresh blood, the Kingdom of Roger appointed him as the commander of the Eastern Front against all odds.

In fact, Garen is not the best candidate. The most suitable person is Earl Steven. Steven has fought in the south for many years and commanded the three Southern Guard Corps for more than nine years. He is familiar with the human geography of this area. There are also many old subordinates in the Guard Corps, which is very easy to command.

It just happens that because Steven has a great influence in the south, Roger will not let him serve as commander.

As a king, Roger is obviously smarter and more capable than Charlie. He carefully manipulates the situation to prevent someone from becoming too powerful and posing a threat to the royal family. Especially the commander of the Guard Corps, it is even more impossible to let people serve for a long time and establish prestige.

The Southern Army commanded by Steven, the Guard Corps must be rotated frequently. After Steven made great contributions, he was granted the title of hereditary earl and his military power was taken back.

The main force on the eastern front was the Royal Guards, while the main force on the western front was the Iron Lion, Grizzly, and Northern Legions. Although the Iron Lion Legion was established relatively recently and its weapons and equipment were a little worse, King Roger still appointed Zachley as the commander.

Zachley was a veteran of the Grant Kingdom. He was not only strategic but also very brave and good at fighting. William and Rab were both his old subordinates and had no complaints about his command.

The main opponents on the eastern front were the five and a half legions of the East Coast United Kingdom, and the number of enemies on the western front was even greater, which was the fifteen legions of the Delong Kingdom, with a total force of 300,000.

Although the combat effectiveness of the Delong Kingdom army was a little worse, the difference in the number of troops was too great, which made Zachley feel that he had no way to start.

At sunset, teams of cavalry stayed at the border of Ferdinand Province.

After conquering the three southern provinces last year, the Roger Kingdom named the new province after its queen Helen and eldest son Ferdinand. The last province is located in the core area of ​​the Duchy of Saxony, and is directly named Saxony Province.

Some court nobles proposed to name it Roger Province, but the king did not agree.

Faced with a large number of enemies, the Kingdom of Grant implemented a strategy of fortifying the city and clearing the countryside, and the entire border area was almost deserted.

Because of the tense situation, this team of cavalry had a sense of solemnity. They walked slowly all the way and entered a small border town. The town was empty, the doors on the street were closed, and only the wind blew up the leaves on both sides of the street, making a rustling sound, bringing a hint of coolness.

William gently sipped the burnt knife from the northern border, and the hot feeling fell from his throat, and the strong liquor finally felt a little easier.

Recently, William has been commanding the cavalry to fight behind the enemy.

Fighting behind the enemy's back is not only difficult to supply, but also very dangerous.

At the most urgent time, William's troops were on the verge of running out of food. In order to keep the troops alive, William ordered to leave food for the war horses, and the soldiers hunted and killed the people of the Kingdom of Delong, relying on eating people to survive.

After this incident, the cavalry under William's command had a crazy temperament, and he himself suffered from severe headaches.

As a human with a normal outlook, eating humans not only causes physical problems, but also makes it difficult for him to get over it psychologically.

Every time he had a headache, only drinking strong liquor could make William feel better.

William turned around and asked the adjutant beside him: "How far is the enemy from us?"

"According to the reconnaissance of the Lion Cavalry, the enemy cavalry is less than 30 kilometers away from us. We only got rid of the enemy for half a day."

"Has the main force entered the ambush site?"

"Our main force is still more than ten kilometers away from the ambush site. They are infantry and are slower. It is estimated that they will have to wait for half a day."

Because of the relationship with Harland Territory, the royal family also bred the Lion Cavalry. Although the number of this Lion Cavalry is small, it was sent to fight in the three southern provinces.

The two southern countries, the East Coast United Kingdom and the Delong Kingdom, do not have flying magic beasts and lack the importance of air reconnaissance. Their whereabouts can always be discovered in advance by the Grant Kingdom.

After hearing the intelligence summarized by the adjutant, William quickly made a decision: "Since the ambush position is not ready, we will entangle with the enemy for half a day. Order the troops to rest in this town for a while, take a good afternoon nap, and get enough energy to lead the enemy into the ambush site at night."

After William handed down the military order, the soldiers immediately packed up their equipment. Except for a few sentinels, the sergeants of the brigade quickly went to bed in the border town.

The continuous fighting during this period made William's soldiers very tired. However, they were able to fall asleep before the tense battle. The morale and experience of this army were extraordinary.

It was soon evening, and the soldiers silently packed up their luggage and formed a complete formation. After leaving the town, they were soon discovered by the pursuers.

William was pursued by the elite Warcraft cavalry of the Kingdom of Delong, with a total of 3,000 people, and 20,000 cavalry infantry to cooperate with the Warcraft cavalry. William had only more than 900 Warcraft cavalry and 3,000 reconnaissance cavalry.

Seeing thousands of cavalry infantry chasing up, he slowly dismounted and lined up to fight. Five or six hundred Warcraft cavalry followed behind the cavalry infantry to protect the cavalry infantry line.

Seeing this scene, William immediately frowned, with a disgusted expression on his face.

"These cavalry infantry are really annoying."

The first principle of cavalry combat is to line up without fighting, and not to easily attack the elite infantry line.

First of all, the power of the infantry bow is far greater than that of the cavalry bow, and the infantry is also far more accurate than the cavalry when shooting arrows.

Secondly, the armor worn by infantry is heavier than that of cavalry. Infantry armor is basically iron armor, and heavy cavalry armor is very rare. The war horses of armored cavalry must be carefully selected. A heavy cavalry with armored cavalry often needs three or four light cavalry and six or seven war horses to cooperate in order to leave and occupy a point and fight in a slightly farther area.

The reconnaissance cavalry commanded by William are not armored cavalry. They have to maintain mobility, and they wear half mail and half leather armor.

Thirdly, humans can stand more steadily with both hands on the ground, and it is more convenient to manipulate weapons with both hands. Even in hand-to-hand combat, once the cavalry loses its impact ability, its tactical ability is far inferior to that of infantry, and it is easy to be defeated by infantry phalanxes.

Fourthly, horses are difficult to train. When facing swords, spears, swords and halberds, horses will retreat by themselves. When they are in front of the two armies and charge into battle, it is difficult for war horses to remain calm, especially when facing their companions bleeding and neighing, it is very difficult for the horse formation to stabilize.

Because of various shortcomings, the first principle of cavalry tactics is to line up but not fight.

William has Warcraft cavalry under his command, and he is not actually afraid of infantry phalanxes. No matter how well the infantry phalanx is arranged, at least half of it will collapse if thousands of magic missiles are fired at it.

Moreover, Warcraft horses are tall and have amazing endurance. They are truly super armored cavalry, and ordinary elite infantry cannot stop them at all.

However, the enemy is a mixed military formation, and the mounted infantry is backed by Warcraft cavalry. It is particularly difficult to defeat such an enemy.

It is precisely because of the tacit cooperation of these three or four enemy troops that William's activities have been gradually compressed, making their results less and less, and the situation more and more dangerous.

During this period, under the enemy's joint attack, William's troops have gradually retreated from behind the enemy to the border line.

Seeing the enemy infantry slowly rushing over, William tightly grasped the spear, pointed at the phalanx of the mounted infantry, and shouted: "Warcraft Cavalry, follow me to charge and break through the enemy infantry phalanx. The scout cavalry protects our flanks. Don't save ammunition in this battle, use up all the alchemical bombs and explosive arrows."

William gave an order and rushed to the front fiercely. The Warcraft Cavalry of the two legions he commanded were extremely crazy and brave. After the iron-horned horses fired a round of magic missiles, William's troops rushed into the infantry formation fiercely in the dense arrows.

The Warcraft Cavalry attacked the infantry formation, which was extremely cruel and bloody. Countless soldiers' shields were broken, and large mouthfuls of blood spurted out of their broken sternums. The fallen soldiers were trampled by the huge iron cans and turned into meat paste.

If they were not elite soldiers, such casualties would be unbearable.

After last year's war, the Kingdom of Delong restored some traditions of the classical military state, and the combat effectiveness of the army was improved. But it is still very rare to be able to withstand such casualties.

The 20,000 cavalry infantrymen who pursued William were carefully selected by the Kingdom of Delong from the entire army.

Many of these people were landless nobles whose land, homes, wives and daughters were taken away by the Kingdom of Grant, and they had an irreconcilable hatred with the Kingdom of Grant. They felt very disappointed, and many of them decided to die to wash away the humiliation, drive away the Grant people, and take back everything they had lost.

Many of these people had family breathing methods, and their foundation was very good. After a year of reorganization by the East Coast United Kingdom, the morale problem was solved, and their combat effectiveness was close to that of the Guards Corps of the Kingdom of Grant.

Despite heavy casualties and bleeding every minute, the infantry phalanx was still struggling.

It was also very difficult for William's cavalry to stop the Warcraft Cavalry of the Kingdom of Delong, even though the enemy's Warcraft Cavalry had only 500 and his own army had 3,000. However, the combat power of the two sides was not equal at all. If it were not for the explosive arrows and alchemical bombs, the scout cavalry would have been dispersed by the enemy in one charge.

The two sides fought back and forth, and in the end, the border army of the Kingdom of Grant was more powerful. The Warcraft Cavalry commanded by William took the lead in breaking the enemy's cavalry infantry line.

After defeating the enemy, William had no time to chase and kill them. After simply cleaning up the battlefield, he led another cavalry infantry into the ambush site.

The Northern Legion was responsible for the ambush. Under the command of the legion commander Raber, the second mixed formation was easily annihilated.

Although William and the Northern Legion annihilated few enemies in this battle, they were all elite troops of the Kingdom of Delong. The cavalry lost 8,000 men, and the Warcraft Cavalry lost 650 men in two battles. It was not easy to replenish such elite troops. Without this backbone, Zakli successfully stabilized the front line with the reinforcement of the Northern Legion.

Due to the lack of a decisive force, although the Delong Kingdom had a large number of troops, it could not annihilate the active forces of the Grant Kingdom.

Although the Grant Kingdom's army was elite, it was small in number and did not dare to easily extend the front line. After entering late May, the two sides confronted each other at the border and gradually stopped fighting.

King Roger was going to continue to draw elite troops from the north for reinforcement, but when he saw that the front line had stabilized and there was not much money left in his treasury, he gave up this plan.

In June, the three southern provinces of the Grant Kingdom ended the war, and the northern region began to resume production.

Especially in the Martins County area, the spring plowing has been delayed this year, and only some potatoes and beans can be replanted in May, which can be harvested.

The more than 200,000 people rescued from the northern prairie were basically settled in this area. They could only rely on relief food to get through the most difficult period this year.

Fortunately, there are 90,000 tons of surplus food in the territory, which is enough to support Martins County for a year.

The northern area of ​​the Eagle Mountains, relying on the orcs' grain storage station as the core, has also formed a complete defense line. The demon hunters and prospecting teams of the Harland territory have also gone deep into the south of this defense line to explore the resources in this area.