Chapter 389

In addition to the soldiers of his own clan who were still willing to follow him, even the orc clans that had been incorporated into his legion already regarded him as nothing.

When escaping, he only focused on escaping on his own and was not willing to obey orders at all.

And the consequences of this behavior are obvious.

Except for the three thousand orcs gathered around Balu, the other orcs who fled scattered were surrounded and suppressed by other human armies on their way back. By the time the orcs completely exited the human-controlled area, it was already three days later.

In the past three days, except for simple water supplies, the orc soldiers could hardly be said to have eaten anything on the way to escape. Even the giant wolf under Balu's crotch couldn't hold on, and fell down halfway, leaving Balu He could only use his own legs to travel like other orc warriors.

"Chief Balu." At night, in Balu's temporary camp, an orc soldier found Balu with a sad look in his eyes.

"What's wrong?" Balu looked at the other party, not understanding what the other party wanted to do with him.

"You may not know me, but I am fifty years old this year." After saying this, he sighed.

"Fifty?" Upon hearing this, Balu immediately showed a look of respect, and then he looked at the warrior for a long time.

For ordinary orcs, being over forty years old is equivalent to entering old age, and their combat effectiveness will decline rapidly. In other words, orc warriors who may have had the third level of human strength may have only The combat power of a human being is at the first level.

Balu is only in his thirties now, and he is already considered a very senior person in the orc tribe.

Balu looked at the other party. He was fifty years old, and his mental state was still very good. As for his combat ability, the fact that he was able to participate in his own march proved that his combat ability was definitely not weak.

"Old sir, please take a seat." Balu said, giving up his seat to him.

Orcs have always respected the strong, and the fact that the opponent is still strong enough to join the army at the age of fifty means that he was definitely more powerful when he was young.

"Okay, thank you." The old orc said and sat next to Balu. "Chief Balu, is our attack a failure?"

Listening to the other party's words, Balu's mood dropped.

"So be it." He nodded.

"Because of my fault, everyone has paid so many casualties and losses in vain. I am very sorry."

"I understand it's not Ba's fault.

Chief Lu, you. "The old orc said so and waved his hand.

"Although I am old, I am not dementia yet. I have participated in three wars, and the results were the same every time." He sighed.

"The first time I participated in the war, the chief at the time told us that we were fighting for the future of the ethnic group. We wanted to obtain the land that belonged to us, take back everything we had lost from humans, and let humans fight for them. Pay the price for your evil deeds.”

The old orc said this with a look of reminiscence.

"In that war, the human side fought hard, but we still broke through their defenses and gained a large area of ​​land."

"But the good times didn't last long. The chief who originally promised to unite the orcs suddenly rebelled and annexed several other small tribes. Then, everyone began to imitate the chief's behavior. The orcs were in chaos, and humans drove us away. go back."

"The last war should be said to be the smoothest among the three wars I have experienced. We invaded the interior of the human empire and robbed them of wealth that we could never imagine, even if we were defeated by humans in the end. , we have also transported back enough food and grass for several years."

"However, the orcs did not become better because of this war. On the contrary, because there was enough food and grass, after returning to the desert, we fought for this batch of supplies. Good comrades who fought side by side in the war against humans, He became an enemy instantly.”

Listening to what the old orc said, Balu was also deeply touched.

He also participated in the last war. At that time, he was not a chief, but a senior officer. He also participated in the subsequent orc civil war. It was also through that civil war that he learned the importance of uniting the orcs.

But before an absolutely powerful force appeared, the orcs always had their own thoughts, and there were too many tribes with evil intentions.

After receiving secret assistance from the human side, Balu did allow his tribe to develop and grow, becoming the only large tribe among the orcs, and successfully "united" all the orcs. However, it turns out that in a smooth situation, At times, the orcs may indeed be united, but once they lose, everyone wants others to be their backers, and conflicts and resentments arise from this.

"So, Chief Balu." The old orc raised his head and looked at the silver moon in the sky. "Is the real enemy of us orcs really humans? Or is it ourselves?"

"..." Balu was silent after hearing this.

"We orcs can withstand the harsh environment in the desert and even develop our own civilization in it."

"But every time we try to really unite to do something, we always end up falling apart from within."

"You're right." Balu sighed.

In order to deal with humans, Balu carefully studied humans through the few documents of the orcs, but the real problem actually lies within the orcs.

"Chief, this is something that took me fifty years to understand. I'm telling you this, not to tell you to give up fighting humans." The old orc said, patting Balu on the shoulder.

"The difficulties we face are indeed created by humans, but equally, only by truly uniting can we fight against humans."

"I understand." Balu nodded after hearing this.

The problem that the orcs are currently facing is that this loose tribal alliance has caused too many conflicts in various decision-making, which prevents the orcs from realizing their war potential. They can only unite as one and establish an orc kingdom. Only a centralized rule can maximize the war potential of the orcs.

Only in this way can the orcs not lose all their victories in the end every time they win against humans.

With this idea in mind, Balu planned to start his own plan to unify the orc tribes after returning.

At the same time, the leaders of other orc tribes also gathered together, and they were discussing plans to fight against Balu.

"If you ask me, we can't defeat humans now, so we might as well just withdraw our troops and go back." Tucker, the chief of the Gray Bones clan, said.

"It's all Balu's fault. I insist that this is the perfect time to attack humans, but in the end we didn't even touch a few human cities." Oni, the chief of the War Helmet clan, also complained at this moment.

"I asked, could it be that Balu actually wants to weaken our strength through this war, and then wipe us out one by one when he returns?" At this time, another chief said.

"Yes, it's very possible!" Tucker suddenly became alert when he heard this. "I asked why he always wants to exclude us from the Chinese army. It turns out that he is just to increase our losses and let humans attack us."

"Good guy, as expected, he is in cahoots with humans.

OK, they were just colluding to get us! "Oni also spoke at this moment.

"What should I say? Do you want us to take action in advance?"

"Okay, strike first. Anyway, all the few supplies we collected during this war should have gone to Balu."

"Yes, yes, before he comes back, let's knock down his tribe first, and we'll share the supplies inside equally!"

"Okay, it's decided!"

Several orc chiefs had already planned to backstab United Chief Balu, and they immediately ordered their soldiers to set off overnight.

Although they escaped earlier than Balu, whether it was due to concerns about their own safety or the desire to share the stolen goods, they had to be faster.

In the process of disintegration, the front, middle and rear armies have been completely scattered. Whoever runs slower is the rear army.

…

"What?! Why are the losses so huge?" Orson sat in the military tent and frowned while looking at the battle report handed over by the scouts.

He had followed the Chinese army to the city of Trava, but the city was seriously damaged due to the war and the houses were dilapidated. Orson simply set up a military tent outside the city.

Previously, Balu ordered the orcs on the periphery to launch an attack on the troops on the front line that were not directly under the duke. This attack stunned the human soldiers who were in a sit-down battle.

The troops assisted by other dukes firmly held their positions, but a group of counts under the Duke of Antica were not so relaxed at this moment.

As we all know, the Dukedom of Antica was formed after the last orc invasion. It is a new duchy. Most of these earls, especially the earls on the border, are newly promoted nobles.

There is also a gap in the ability of different nobles to manage the territory. Most of the nobles in the Duke of Antica can only be said to be barely qualified. It is completely impossible for them to do a good job.

Therefore, during this orc invasion, although many counts pulled out thousands of troops, only about a thousand of them were standing troops, and the rest were temporarily recruited peasant troops.

Even the so-called standing army, most of the time, in order to save expenses, the number of people is false. The actual standing army of an earl is generally around 500 people.

The most outrageous thing is that some border counts clearly have the financial support of the dukes and specifically allow them to raise a border garrison. However, in order to embezzle this financial allocation, those counts lied that the border garrison had a thousand people, when in fact there were a hundred. Thank God.

In this battle, they were asked to gather troops. The earls were unable to suddenly gather so many well-trained soldiers, so they had no choice but to use farmers to make up the numbers, and falsely called a group of untrained militiamen a "standing army."

Even the second-rate troops of the orcs still had an advantage when facing the militia troops temporarily raised by the count, not to mention the existence of troops who were paid for their money.

Not to mention several border cities that were captured, one border count even lost his capital.

This made the losses in the war much greater than those in Orson's plan. You must know that in those counties, most of the people did not evacuate. They believed that their lords could guarantee their safety.

But I wonder what they thought when the orcs suddenly appeared in front of them?

It can only be said that there is a reason why humans suffered such heavy losses when facing orc attacks.

"This...I'm going to investigate the reason right now." The scout said this, with a few drops of sweat dripping from his forehead, and he knelt down on one knee to apologize.

"Yeah." Orson nodded after hearing this.

If things develop beyond expectations, it proves that Orson must have made mistakes in his intelligence assessment here, which requires re-evaluation.

Fortunately, the war on the frontal battlefield has ended, and the troops directly under the command can immediately go to support other fronts and push back the orc troops.

After the scout left, Orson rubbed his temples.

"Why exactly does this problem occur..."

…

The Earl of Kars, the capital is the city of Kars.

At this moment, inside the Earl's mansion, a group of orcs were moving valuable things out of the Earl's mansion. The Earl's wife and family members were all huddled in a room inside.

Count Kars himself was groveling servilely in front of a tall orc.

"Master Orc, you have got all the valuable things in my house. Please, please let my wife and daughter go."

Count Carls's heart was full of regret at this moment.

The Earl of Kars he rules is a border territory, and has its own line of defense.

On the front line, the number of border garrison troops given by Lucius was 2,000, and funds were allocated to supply these 2,000 men every year. However, in fact, the Count of Karls only deployed 200 men as a standing army on this front. This war After the outbreak, although he gathered 5,000 people to guard his territory, which seemed to be a large number, most of them were farmers in the countryside and had not even received war training.

Therefore, faced with the attack of the same number of orcs, Count Kars's troops quickly collapsed. This group of orcs burned, killed, and looted in the territory of Count Kars, and soon reached the city of Kars.

And Earl Kars knew that when the orcs broke through the outer defense line, the orcs had already arrived at the city.

The huge city of Kars was defended by only about 500 regular troops, while there were four to five thousand orcs outside the city, making it impossible to defend.

After a brief resistance, the soldiers on the city wall gave way to the city wall.

Anyway, the salary they usually receive is much lower than that of other armies, so firing three arrows before the battle is worthy of the earl. After giving up the city wall, the soldiers fled directly.

Karls City is a city of immigrants. Most of the residents here are immigrants from outside. The soldiers have no sense of belonging here, let alone die fighting for this city.

Ever since, this scene has happened.

If he had known that this situation would happen, no matter what Count Carls said, he would definitely not have eaten this year's free salary.

It's fine now. All the money I earned through free wages was used to decorate my big house and improve my life. After the arrival of the orcs, it all turned into nothing.

"Oh? Do you still have a wife and daughter?" the orc said, pointing at Count Carls. "Bring them out and show them to me."

Although Earl Kars was extremely reluctant in his heart, he still gave in when he saw the sharp horns on the opponent's head.

In the orc tribe, in addition to the orcs with green skin and sharp fangs, there are also some orcs with other characteristics.

For example, the tauren now appearing in front of Count Kars are a minority race among the orcs.

The strength and physique of the tauren race are much larger than that of ordinary orcs, but their numbers are quite small.

The reason has something to do with the living habits of the tauren themselves.

Among the Tauren tribe, a relatively ancient custom is popular, walking marriage. In this case, the children born only know their mother but not their father.

Over time, due to some unknown reasons, the fertility of the tauren has greatly decreased, and the population has also shrunk. From a group that had a strong voice among the orcs in the past, it has become a small group today.

"This...this is not good..." Count Karls said. "Gentlemen, you came here to grab money and food anyway, so just let us people go."

"Who said that!?" The tauren said, waving his fist and giving Count Carls a hard punch.

The latter was knocked several meters away and fell to the ground, covering his chest and coughing.

"Ahem..." He felt his throat hurt like a knife, and blood was constantly coughed to the ground.

At this time, the orcs who were searching the house also came out.

"Report to the boss, we found a locked room. Do you need to force it open?"

"Force it to open." The tauren glanced at Count Kars and then said.

Count Kars closed his eyes in despair.

If, if he had not ridiculed Leeteuk so much at the banquet that Leeteuk had just returned and made the Duke's family unhappy, at least he would have been able to get assistance from the Duke's army.

In his ears, he could already hear the sound of a giant ax chopping down the wooden door, and he also heard the panicked screams of his wife and daughters.

It's over, it's all over, my own territory, my own wealth, my own women, my own children.

He didn't know what was left of him after this battle, but when he realized that this was an unnecessary disaster that could have been avoided, his spirit was no longer stable.

After a long time, he seemed to have made a decision. He forced himself to stand up from the ground and walked to the tauren.