Chapter 407 Cutting Off the Retreat
Mark Dean made a mistake in his decision-making. He rashly sent reinforcements without understanding the enemy's situation. As a result, he turned into a fueling tactic, which made it easy for Haaland to lead three battles.
Discovering that Duke Hubble and his troops appeared nearby, Richard directly set a trap in the dense forest halfway and defeated his opponent in a short time.
In just five days, Richard led Harland's army to attack the enemy's left flank, winning three battles and annihilating 64,000 enemy troops. However, Harland's army suffered losses of less than 600 people. .
Such a brilliant victory calmed the aristocracy of the United Kingdom on the east coast.
Mark Dean noticed that the morale of the soldiers was low and decided to personally lead the team to a great victory. However, he did not want to confront Harland's army head-on, because Mark Dean had already received the intelligence and figured out the reason for the defeat of the Nineteenth Army.
The killer weapon of starlight bomb has fallen into Mark Dean's eyes.
Even though Mark Dean also has legendary-level treasures on his body, and the reinforcements of mages from the headquarters have arrived, he is still unwilling to face the power of the hard-top star bomb.
Since he was unwilling to fight a decisive battle with Harland's leader, Mark Dean decided to launch a fierce attack from the Hubbard Mountains, attack the logistics line of Harland's army, and first defeat the 30,000 coalition forces of Steven and the southern nobles.
In this year's war, the three kingdoms mobilized nearly two million troops. The main front-line troops exceeded one million troops. The width of the main battlefield was one thousand kilometers long.
On the western front, William commanded the Grizzly Army and the four Dukes of Grant, leading an army of 150,000 to attack the 300,000 defenders of the Kingdom of Delon and the 100,000 troops of the Dukes of East and Orlando. Although it started very smoothly, with the elite cavalry of Duke Anton joining the battlefield, it has now fallen slightly behind.
The center line is commanded by Zachary. The five legions are all elite soldiers of the royal family. Their opponents are 100,000 troops from the Kingdom of Delon, plus six legions with approximately 120,000 troops from the United Kingdom on the East Coast. Despite the huge difference in strength, Zachary had already gained a considerable advantage, reached the south bank of the Mara River, and began to approach the Castle of St. Sith, the capital of the Kingdom of Delon.
The Eastern Route Army commanded by Richard has the smallest number of troops. Together with the coalition forces of Earl Steven and the southern nobles, the front-line army has only 75,000 troops. Richard's opponent was Mark Dean, the legendary knight of the United Kingdom on the East Coast. He commanded a total of nine legions. Together with the armies of Duke Hubble and Isaac, the total number was 220,000.
In addition, there is the northern battlefield. The four marquises in the east of the Grant Kingdom and the three regiments of the Royal Guards have about 150,000 front-line troops, while the United Kingdom on the east coast has a total of 220,000 troops including the navy.
In this direction, the United Kingdom on the East Coast has the strategic initiative because of its naval superiority. It can come and leave whenever it wants. The United Kingdom army on the east coast mobilized the defenders back and forth and fought a very exciting battle, annihilating 30,000 people from the Grant Kingdom.
King Roger failed in the first battle and was forced to adopt the method of strengthening the walls and clearing the country, and issued an order to move to the sea. As soon as the sea migration order was issued, the four eastern marquises suffered heavy economic losses, and more than 100,000 slaves died during the migration. Only by using this lose-lose approach was the attack of the United Kingdom on the East Coast blocked.
In the war five years ago, although the Grant Kingdom won a complete victory and expanded its land to 150,000 square kilometers in the south, it lost the Earl of Silver Moon Island and fought against the United Kingdom on the East Coast. Strategically, it has become passive.
If the Earl of Silver Moon Island had been saved in the last war, this war would not be so passive.
Through this war, the fleet of the United Kingdom on the east coast woke up King Roger. In this war, King Roger clearly felt the important role of the navy.
On the battlefield in four directions, no party has been able to break the balance, and they are all in a stalemate.
Realizing that Richard was approaching with his troops and wanted to fight a decisive battle to break the balance of the war, Mark Dean decided to do the opposite.
He hoarded six legions in the south of the Hubble Mountains, adopted the method of clearing the country with strong walls and setting up many forts, hoping to hold back Richard's army. He personally led two legions, pulsed down from the Hubble Mountains, and attacked Steven. The earl and the southern nobles allied forces.
The timing of Mark Dean's attack was very sudden, ensuring the concealment of the attack. He took the lead and led the elite infantry to attack six fortresses in a row.
This unstoppable momentum suppressed the coalition of southern nobles.
Compared with the army of Earl Steven, the Southern Noble Alliance Army was more loose. Facing the harsh test, it lacked internal cohesion. Under the attack of the United Kingdom Army on the east coast, it first collapsed. The collapse also dispersed Earl Steven. The camp, causing Steven's army to fall into slight chaos.
Sensing that the situation was not good, Earl Steven did not choose to lead his troops to escape. He knew in his heart: "Once he flees and allows the East Coast United Kingdom army to cut off the food route, Duke Harland will definitely hold himself accountable after returning.
Although I have Grant royal blood, Duke Harland will not care about this and reduce his punishment. There is a high probability that my head will be used to intimidate the army. When the time comes, the territory will also be exonerated and taken back by the royal family. The Roger Kingdom will surely agree to it.
Now running away is just to survive for a few more days, it is better to fight for the children. If I win this battle by luck and still achieve meritorious service, even if this battle fails and I die here, King Roger and Duke Harland will not be able to hold the officers who died in the battle accountable.
In the blink of an eye, Steven had already thought clearly. He issued the order decisively, suppressed the fleeing soldiers, led Steven's army, and fought a bloody war with Mark Dean.
Earl Steven led his soldiers to fight bravely, but he could not stop the fierce attack of the legendary knight. Mark Dean led the troops to charge and broke through the formation of Earl Steven.
Although Earl Steven was a ninth-level epic knight, he could not compete with the legendary second-level knight. Despite fierce resistance, he still died at the hands of Mark Dean.
In this battle, Earl Steven was defeated and killed, and the southern noble coalition lost 90% of its soldiers. Only less than 3,000 defeated soldiers were gathered in the rear.
More than 30,000 troops were annihilated, and Mark Dean's loss was only 4,000 people.
After winning this battle, Mark Dean successfully completed the combat goal, cut off the food supply of Richard's troops, and put Richard's troops in a pincer attack.
Because of the overnight march and a hard battle, Mark Dean asked the soldiers to rest for a night and decided to attack Salon Castle tomorrow.
Although Mark Dean was unexpected, there were air scouts from Harland in the sky hundreds of miles away. The Lion Duck Cavalry soon noticed something was wrong and passed the news to Salon City.
After discovering that the rear road had been lost, Levin, the defender of Salon City, did not hesitate. He immediately burned the food and grass, abandoned the 20,000 slaves he had collected and captured, slaughtered the prisoners of war, and decisively led the army back to Jinshan City to join Sox's troops.
After the two armies joined, there were three infantry battalions and three Warcraft cavalry squadrons, with a total of about 5,000 people.
Five thousand people relied on the city walls to defend, and they could barely touch Mark Dean's troops.
After Mark Dean defeated Earl Steven and the coalition of southern nobles, he still needed to cut off the army's food supply and attack and control several key castles. The army he personally brought to Jinshan Castle was only 18,000 people.
Losing the suddenness of the attack, Mark Dean could only order the soldiers to attack.
Jinshan Castle had complete city defense fortifications. Although the number of defenders was small, they were well-trained elite soldiers. There was no progress in the first day of the siege.
Although Mark Dean personally led the assault, he was attacked by a large number of alchemical bombs, explosive arrows, and magic feather arrows. Even the Warcraft cavalry ambushed under the city wall, constantly releasing magic missiles to besiege Mark Dean.
Although Mark Dean killed and injured hundreds of soldiers in the battle, the defenders still did not collapse and withstood Mark Dean's fierce attack. On the contrary, Mark Dean's magic power was mostly consumed, and the ninth-level enchanted armor on his body was also seriously worn.
Levin and Sox blocked Mark Dean's first round of fierce attack. Richard led Harland to lead the army and approached the defense line of the United Kingdom on the East Coast.
Now that the retreat was cut off by the enemy, Richard's troops only carried seven days of supplies. Although 500 tons of food were stored in the space props, this amount of food was only enough for Richard's army to eat for three days.
The food was only enough for ten days. If the enemy could not be defeated in ten days, Harland would have to kill horses to satisfy his hunger. When the horses and livestock were eaten up, people would have to be eaten in order to survive.
At this critical moment, Richard did not choose to deceive the soldiers, but made a brief pre-war mobilization and told the soldiers the real situation on the battlefield.
"Soldiers, our food supply has been cut off. The five thousand brothers in Jinshan Castle are also surrounded by the enemy and it is difficult to escape. Now we only have enough food for ten days. If we can't defeat the enemy within ten days, we will fail. Even if you barely save your life, you will become slaves and lose your freedom for the rest of your life, living a miserable life.
So in order to avoid this outcome, we can only fight hard. If we defeat the defense line of the East Coast United Kingdom Army, we can go deep into the enemy's territory, rob money, rob food, rob women, and dominate the fate of the defeated. At that time, no matter whether it is the noble lady or the charming noble lady, they will need to be under your crotch to save the lives of their loved ones."
Under normal circumstances, the military discipline of Harland's army is very strict, especially in the country, and the punishment for violating military discipline is very severe, but when fighting abroad and invading the enemy, in order to keep the soldiers' morale and fight hard in battle, the military discipline must be relaxed a little.
Although Richard indulged his soldiers in looting and rape, he prohibited his soldiers from massacring the city. Zooming in to the army of the Dawn Plane, the moral level of the soldiers of Harland is already at a relatively high level.
Even if the East Coast United Kingdom army avoided fighting, Harland's attack was still very swift.
In just two days, Harland's army attacked the city three times, and Richard used starlight bombs twice to break the enemy's counterattack. Five battles were fought, three fortresses were conquered, and more than 20,000 enemy troops were annihilated.
The war has continued to this day, and the enemy's Eastern Army has lost 90,000 soldiers.
The loss of 90,000 troops is equivalent to 40% of the war losses. Because many troops were lost as a whole, the remaining enemy troops were basically intact and could barely support.
Richard won a great victory on the front line, and the vicinity of Jinshan Castle could no longer support it.
Facing the attack of the legendary knight, without masters of the same level, the defenders faced serious difficulties. After only two days of defense, the losses were already very serious. Although the defenders broke Mark Dean's set of ninth-level enchanted armor, they still could not seriously injure him. On their side, nearly a thousand people were killed by this legendary knight.
The war has continued to this day, and there are only 2,400 defenders left, with more than 300 wounded soldiers. If it were not for the strict military law enforced by Haaland's army, good logistical support, and a pension system that was deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, ordinary armies would have collapsed long ago after suffering more than 60% casualties.
The main force led by Richard was about 80 kilometers away from Jinshan Castle. Now Harland's army had already intersected with the defenders of the United Kingdom on the east coast, and it was not easy to withdraw. Therefore, Richard issued a military order to retreat to the defenders of Jinshan Castle through the Lion Duck Cavalry.
After receiving the order dropped by the Lion Duck Cavalry, Levin and Sox abandoned the wounded and issued an order to break out in the middle of the night.
As the saying goes, kindness does not command the army. Although abandoning the wounded is inhumane, at the critical moment of life and death, the commander must make a choice, and this choice often obliterates humanity.
The breakout was very decisive and swift. Levin and the others did not choose to break out to the east and get close to Richard, but went the other way and launched an attack to the west.
The two were caught off guard and the process of breaking through the encirclement was also very smooth.
Although Mark Dean personally led the troops and chased for a distance, Levin and Sox still escaped with their lives. There were about 1,200 troops left who broke through the encirclement with them.
Because Levin and Sox's troops were wandering outside, Mark Dean had to leave 3,000 soldiers to guard Jinshan City.
In the two-day siege, the East Coast United Kingdom troops led by Mark Dean also lost more than 3,000 soldiers. Fighting with Earl Steven and the Southern Allied Forces, Mark Dean's troops lost 4,000 people, and attacking Jinshan Castle lost 3,000 people. Cutting off the food supply of Harland's army required 18,000 people to stay.
Now Mark Dean can attack Richard's troops, with only 12,000 people left. The continuous hard battles also made this army lose its fighting spirit.
Through the lion and the two-legged dragon, Richard already knew that Jinshan Castle had been lost, and the enemy would arrive about the day after tomorrow.
Before the enemy arrived, Richard once again led Harland's army to launch a fierce attack. Regardless of fatigue, he attacked two castles in a row in one day, and once again annihilated more than 10,000 enemies.
The war has been going on till now. Harland's soldiers have maintained high morale. With the support of artillery, they have taken the initiative to attack the city five times, broke through five enemy castles, defeated two enemy counterattacks, and annihilated 30,000 troops of the East Coast United Kingdom. Their own losses were only 1,500 people.
The war has continued until now. With the losses of Levin and Sox's troops, Harland's army has lost nearly 6,000 people. And the enemy troops they have annihilated have reached nearly 100,000.
After this day's battle, the front line of the East Coast United Kingdom was already shaky and could hardly hold on.