Chapter 440: Rest and Reorganization

After killing Duke Madison, Richard easily seized the spoils from him. Although the enchanted armor had been damaged, it could still be sold for hundreds of thousands of gold coins after repair. Even the legendary knight Sylph in Harland didn't have such good armor. It could be given away after some repairs.

In the horrified eyes of the Ryan Kingdom army, Richard stripped off Duke Madison's armor, took away his enchanted sword, and then sent someone to send the body back to the Ryan Kingdom army.

Taking advantage of the boost in morale, Richard seized the opportunity and immediately launched an attack.

More than 30 magic crystal cannons were launched at the same time. The extremely hard mountain copper alloy warheads hit the city wall accurately with powerful kinetic energy, and fiercely punched a big hole.

Although Novena Castle was built very solidly and the city wall was more than ten meters thick, it was still difficult to withstand the attack of this new magic prop.

The powerful alloy shells hit the stone wall, and the splashing fragments made ordinary soldiers dare not approach at all. The shells hit the inside of the city wall fiercely, causing cracks on the wall.

After only a dozen rounds of shelling, many bullet holes appeared on the front of the city wall, which was already riddled with holes.

Another round of shells came, making a piercing whistle in the sky.

The shells were fired at five kilometers, drawing an arc, and this time they actually directly collapsed the city wall. In an instant, a loud bang broke out on the city wall, and thick dust was raised, burying many soldiers.

Seeing the damage to the city wall, Kromis closed his eyes in pain.

Although the army attacking Harland was only 60,000 people, and he had 200,000 troops, more than three times the number of the enemy, but only three legion vanguards arrived near Novena Castle.

The army of the Kingdom of Ryan is more combat-savvy than the East Coast United Kingdom. It has also been facing the invasion of orcs for many years, has rich war experience, and its combat effectiveness is roughly the same as that of the Kingdom of Grant.

However, compared with the well-equipped and brave main force of Harland, it was still obviously at a disadvantage, and Richard also had starlight bombs and magic crystal cannons to help.

Without the protection of the city defense fortifications, it was even more impossible to withstand the fierce attack of Harland's army.

In desperation, Kromis had to abandon the city and issued an order to retreat.

Because Kromis had already noticed the card of starlight bombs, he did not personally charge into the battle. Under the cover of the Warcraft Cavalry and Lion Duck Knights, the Kingdom of Ryan retreated from Novena Castle at the cost of 8,000 casualties, using the Kampa River as a natural line of defense to block Harland's army.

At the same time, Kromis listened to Mackaylon's advice, and with Mackaylon, who had been treated and whose injuries were alleviated, as the commander-in-chief, he led two legions and 3,000 Warcraft cavalry to bypass the main force of Harland and attack the two dukes of Sardin and Hughes, intending to cut off the retreat of the main force of Harland and contain the actions of Harland's army.

The combat effectiveness of the two dukes of Sardin and Hughes was average, and they could not withstand the fierce attack of the large number of Warcraft cavalry. In just half a month, they suffered heavy losses, with more than 10,000 casualties.

With an unstable rear, Duke Sardin and Duke Hughes kept sending letters for help to Richard. Harland's army had to give up the plan of attacking and transferred some elite troops to defend Mackaylon.

In mid-June, the war entered a new stage.

All fronts have been basically stable, and it is difficult for either side to break the balance, and they fell into a stalemate.

At this moment, even the proud Thomas Kingdom had to admit that the military strength of the Grant Kingdom was much greater than that of the Ryan Kingdom. Even if the Duke of Harland was subtracted, it was estimated that it would have the upper hand.

Although the front line was stable, the flying arms of both sides were in a tragic duel.

Air battles broke out every day. In just over a month, Harland had lost 16 Lion Knights, two Wyverns, and destroyed six magic airships.

The losses of the Kingdom of Ryan were even more severe, with more than 100 Lion Duck Cavalrymen killed or wounded, including more than 20 Lion Ducks wounded and captured by Harland, and the war loss reached one-third.

With such tragic consumption, the Kingdom of Ryan was the first to be unable to withstand it, and began to reduce the frequency of Lion Duck Knights' activities, giving the sky to the enemy for the first time.

Although the logistics pressure of the Kingdom of Grant was getting heavier and heavier, Richard's army was relatively relaxed.

First, they occupied the Dukedom of Madison and seized 60,000 tons of food, which could feed the entire army for half a year. Then they caught up with the autumn harvest and also plundered a lot of food, which could be replenished by fighting to support the war.

In addition, Richard also captured Novena Castle and seized a large amount of baggage.

Because the nobles and bureaucrats of the Dukedom of Madison burned the baggage, Richard killed a lot of people in the Dukedom of Madison. As long as the nobles and bureaucrats caught by the occupying army were basically all executed, and their wives and daughters were given to the soldiers who made meritorious contributions. Such a cruel suppression deterred the defenders of Novena Castle.

Although Kromis also issued an order to fortify the city and burn the baggage when he retreated, it was not well executed in the chaotic battlefield.

Although some people set fire to some warehouses, they were quickly put out by the soldiers led by Harland who entered the city, and the material losses in the city were very light.

In Novena Castle alone, Richard seized 36,000 tons of grain, 20,000 rolls of cloth, 80,000 kilograms of cotton, in addition to various baggage such as wood, bricks, iron, kerosene, etc.

After taking down Novena Castle, Richard's army did not need to be replenished from the rear for a year.

Time passed day by day and entered September.

After three months of stalemate, the defense line of the Kampa River in the Kingdom of Ryan has been completed. More than a dozen military forts have been built along the river, each of which is stationed with a large number of soldiers. A lot of magic crossbows have been added to the military forts, and the magicians of the Kingdom of Ryan have also set up many magic traps.

Even if the Duke of Harland risked his life to break this line of defense, the casualties would be very heavy.

Moreover, there was a group of elite soldiers led by Mackaylon on the flank of the Harland army. As Richard sent troops to help, Mackaylon saw that there was no advantage to be taken, and decisively led his troops to withdraw to the south bank of the Mara River.

After several months of war, Richard led the soldiers of Harland to not only seize the salient of the Duke of Madison, leveling the border between the Kingdom of Ryan and the Kingdom of Grant, but also conquered a large area of ​​territory in the north of the Mara River and the east of the Kampa River, including the important town of Novena Castle in the Kingdom of Ryan, and greatly pushed the border forward.

In this five-nation war, Harlan's army once again played a key role. It not only blocked the largest strategic corps of the Kingdom of Ryan, but also seized more than 200,000 square kilometers of enemy land and won the greatest merit.

At this moment, among the warring countries, the navy of the Kingdom of Sith suffered heavy losses. Because the distance was too far, it basically withdrew from the war. Although the East Coast and the Kingdom of Delong fought hard, their own military strength was average and could not break the balance.

Although the Kingdom of Ryan still had spare strength, it had no confidence in winning. After all, if the scale of the war continued to expand, Harland County could still invest 100,000 troops, and the Kingdom of Grant could squeeze out 80,000 people.

At that time, it would still be in a stalemate, reducing the strength of the Silver Wolf Mountain Range defense line, and the only ones who would benefit would be the orcs.

Now, the major participating countries are fighting for consumption, and they can win a complete victory if they fight until their national strength is exhausted and they cannot transport logistics supplies to the front line.

The three kingdoms of Ryan, Delon, and the East Coast have a total of 120 million people, while the Grand Duchy of the Kingdom of Grant and Gastanic have almost 60 million people. They have no chance of winning by competing in consumption and national strength.

According to the current situation, the Kingdom of Grant can only hold out for half a year at most, and it must shorten the logistics line and reduce the number of soldiers from the front line.

Just when the Kingdom of Grant was gritting its teeth and holding on, the orcs invaded on a large scale again.

Because the Eastern Front Army of the Grassland Governor's District had been hurt by Lord Harland, this time the invasion was mainly from the Central Front Army and the Western Front Army.

More than 30 orc legions appeared near the Silver Wolf Mountains.

At the same time, the Eastern Front Army of the Grassland Governor's District also launched a feint attack to contain the main legion deployed by Lord Harland in the northern border to prevent them from being transferred west to support the Grand Duchy of Stanic.

The orcs mobilized more than 30 legions to the south. With such a huge force, the Kingdom of Ryan and the Grand Duchy of Stanic must be asked to stop fighting. In order to resist the orcs, Grand Duke Jonathan immediately ordered McMillan to retreat immediately and bring 80,000 soldiers to reinforce the north. At the same time, King Thomas also issued a military order to retreat to the two armies.

Retreating from the battlefield is very risky. Especially McMillan, who was on the defensive, rushed to the military camp of the Kingdom of Ryan in order to withdraw smoothly. The two sides had an in-depth negotiation and gained limited trust before they both stopped fighting.

The biggest variable of the Kingdom of Ryan was dragged down by the orcs, and the situation in the Kingdom of Grant suddenly became a little easier.

King Roger seized this opportunity very decisively and kept sending envoys, hoping to sign a short-term treaty and restore peace for a period of time.

However, Ryan, Delong and East Coast did not agree to this request at all.

In this five-nation war, the three countries of Ryan have seen the foundation of the Kingdom of Grant. The Grant royal family and the Harland Territory are a man-eating tiger. In just over 20 years, they have expanded millions of square kilometers of land and swallowed up 20 million people in Delong and East Coast. The nearby territories are terrified.

It was under such a situation that Ryan, East Coast and Delong formed a tripartite alliance.

In this war, the three-nation alliance and the slave-catching group of the Kingdom of Sith could not defeat the enemy on the front battlefield. The Kingdom of Ryan also lost a large area of ​​land and Duke Madison was killed.

If this tiger is allowed to catch its breath, the three-nation alliance may suffer a great defeat in the next war and face the fate of national destruction.

Although the Kingdom of Ryan has lost a lot of land, the front line has stabilized, and the three-nation alliance can rely on its strong national strength to consume the enemy. As long as you grit your teeth and hold on for this period of time, and resist the orcs in the Silver Wolf Mountains, you can continue to fight with the Kingdom of Grant until the Kingdom of Grant is exhausted.

The three-nation alliance did not agree to peace talks, but the situation was not changed by their will.

The orcs who disrupted the situation concentrated more than 600,000 troops and broke through the defense line of the Silver Wolf Mountains. More than twelve orc legions poured into the two countries of Ryan and Stanik.

At this time, the Kingdom of Ryan must sign a treaty with the Kingdom of Grant in exchange for a short-term peace. Otherwise, if the Kingdom of Grant seizes the opportunity and mobilizes more than 100,000 troops again to cooperate with the orcs to attack the Kingdom of Ryan, the situation may become worse and the Kingdom of Ryan will be unable to recover.

The Kingdom of Ryan is ready to withdraw from the war temporarily, and Delon and East Coast can only agree to it. After all, among the three-nation alliance, the Kingdom of Ryan is the strongest and the core of the alliance. This war has tied down the Duke of Harland, who has the strongest combat effectiveness, and also confronted Stanik's 200,000 troops.

If the two countries drag their feet and refuse to agree to peace talks, the Kingdom of Ryan unilaterally withdraws from the war, and when the Duke of Harland leads his troops eastward to cooperate with the coalition of the six dukes, the army of the Grand Duchy of Delon may face the fate of collapse.

The current situation requires that the Kingdom of Ryan and the Grand Duchy of Stannic need to restore peace immediately and transfer troops from the south to the north to defend against the orcs.

After Grand Duke Jonathan wrote a letter to Richard, he conveyed the order to withdraw troops and march north to Dukes Hughes and Sardin.

Dukes Hughes and Sardin evacuated Madison with 40,000 troops, and the strength of Harland's troops was immediately reduced by 40%.

As soon as the two dukes withdrew, Richard's troops were not enough. He ordered Harland to withdraw 20,000 auxiliary troops to replace Dukes Hughes and Sardin to guard Madison. At the same time, he sent a wyvern knight to write a letter to Soros, who was in the rear, asking him to end the training of new recruits in advance and add 9,000 reinforcements to the southern battlefield with 6,000 newly recruited infantrymen and 3,000 veterans this year.

Although the flying troops of the Kingdom of Ryan suffered heavy losses and could not defeat Harland. But they can still rely on the Lion Duck Knight to detect a lot of intelligence.

After discovering that Harland had increased the number of troops by 9,000, the Kingdom of Ryan immediately denounced the envoy of the Kingdom of Grant, claiming that the Kingdom of Grant had no sincerity in peace talks and had once again increased its troops on the front line.

As the situation developed, the envoy of the Kingdom of Grant became more and more tough. Not only did he not agree to return the occupied land, he also refuted the nonsense of the Kingdom of Ryan. And he produced evidence to show that on this front, the Kingdom of Grant had kept its promise and had reduced its army from 100,000 to 70,000. On the other hand, the Kingdom of Ryan not only did not withdraw its troops on the west bank of the Kampa River, but also replenished the losses.

The two sides argued for a while and found that verbal attacks were useless.

In the end, the five warring countries signed a short-term peace contract, which was not signed by the king. It can be said that this contract can be torn up at any time. As long as there is a clear understanding of the situation, it must be clear that even if the orcs are repelled, a larger-scale war will break out among the five warring countries.

After entering mid-October, as the situation further evolved, the five participating countries finally ceased fire and stopped fighting.

It had been half a year since Harland led the army to the battle, and Richard had been planning to lead his troops back for rest and recuperation, when he suddenly received a letter for help from Archduke Jonathan.