Chapter 201 End of the Year
Advent is a major festival for people in this world. In ancient times, people regarded this day as the critical point between the old and new years. Later, with the improvement of the calendar, Advent lost this function in the old calendar, and the first day of each year in the new calendar was postponed to about a week after Advent.
However, Advent is still the most important day. In addition to the strong traditional factors, it also has a religious meaning. Legend has it that this day is the day when Archangel Windes led five hundred archangels to the world. At that time, humans still stayed at the level of slash-and-burn farming and knotting ropes to record events. The tools they used were all polished from stones, and the clothes they wore were made of animal skins and plant leaves.
At that time, there were many alien races on the continent, threatening the weak human race.
The angels taught humans all kinds of magical technologies, such as planting technology, animal and plant domestication technology, metal smelting technology, and brought incredible texts, which eventually helped human society get out of the ignorant age. With the help of these powerful technologies, humans gradually established their hegemony on the continent, forcing orcs to flee to the grasslands, dwarves to retreat to the mountains, and elves to live in the forests. More alien races disappeared directly in the long river of history without even leaving a name.
Humans eventually occupied the most habitable plains on this continent and have been multiplying from generation to generation.
However, as time went by and the exchanges between races were not frequent but never interrupted, human technology gradually spread to the alien races. The closer the technological level, the closer the combat effectiveness of the armies of both sides, which aroused the ambition of the alien races to return to the habitable zone. The human army could not crush the other side one-sidedly, and the conflict between races intensified again.
The last time the alien races were completely suppressed was during the period of the great unification of the Gubella Empire. The unified human empire sent several great expeditions with the whole country's strength. Relying on the weapons and equipment that still had certain advantages and the advanced military system, it finally beat the alien races to submission again and re-established the absolute hegemony of human civilization on the continent.
But the empire eventually collapsed, and the divided human countries attacked each other. It stands to reason that this is a good opportunity for the alien race to turn the tables, but fortunately, the empire still has its remaining power. Races such as dwarves and elves seem to have given up their ambition to dominate the continent because of their sparse population.
Only the orcs living on the northern grasslands have strong fertility and a large population, but the fragile ecology of the grasslands cannot support too many people. The pressure of survival and the unwillingness of being repeatedly suppressed in history make them always eye the fertile land in the south.
The orcs have launched several large-scale invasions, but they have abandoned the previous strategy of attacking cities and occupying them, and instead switched to a way of grabbing and leaving, focusing on settlements with weak defenses, relying on the advantage of cavalry to come and go like the wind, avoiding a tug-of-war with the armies of human countries.
The ununited countries cannot support large-scale cavalry like the Gubella Empire, and the increasingly weakened royal power and degraded logistics cannot support a decent expedition, which makes humans extremely passive when facing orc looting. ,
Orc raiding has become a headache for the rulers of the northern countries.
In the hall of the Lord's Mansion in Lake Heart Town, important military and political officials of Alda gathered together, including the Navy Commander Austin and the shipyard director Rubin who usually stayed in Fulan Port.
As the Advent Day approaches, the old year is about to pass. Paul decided to gather his men to Lake Heart Town to summarize the gains and losses of the past year and look forward to future development.
Before the Lord arrived, everyone talked about many major events that happened this year.
"According to the news from the east, it seems that many villages and towns have been robbed by orcs since the beginning of winter!"
"Alas, the rebellion in the south prevented the royal family from withdrawing too much power to support the northeast region."
"We are much luckier here. There are continuous primeval forests and mountains in the north."
The north and east of the Kingdom of Aldo have mountains as natural barriers, but only in the northeast region is there a small plain area between the two mountains, which becomes the "northeast corridor" from Aldo to the northern prairie.
Every winter, the orcs on the prairie would pass through here to plunder various parts of the northeast, especially when the "white disaster" occurred on the prairie.
Because the "corridor" in the northeast is far away from the hinterland of the kingdom, the small-scale plunder of the orcs is not as threatening as the rebellion of the barbarians in the eastern highlands, and the rebellion in the south made it impossible for the top leaders to withdraw too much force, so this year only symbolic support was provided to the northeast.
For the Kingdom of Aldo, this year is really a turbulent year.
Just when others were celebrating Alda's position, only Chief of Staff Schroeder and Joyce, who had become the commander of the third battalion, had worried faces among the people present. The two of them had been in the army in the northeast and personally participated in the war against the orcs.
The two had feelings for that piece of land, and naturally they were not happy when they heard the news of the orcs entering the country to plunder. Especially Schroeder, he spent most of his military career there.
Seeing that everyone looked as if they were not concerned, Joyce could not help but say, "Everyone, if your lips are gone, your tongue will feel cold. If the orcs seize the moment when the kingdom is weak and gather their forces to occupy the northeastern territories, their next target will probably be us."
Bryce made a fist in the air, "Then we will use cannons to blast them back!"
Joyce shrugged. These people had never seen the ferocity of orcs. They were not comparable to the pirates and peasant soldiers recruited by the lords.
But Joyce had seen that those terrible creatures who grew up in harsh environments were born for war. Even ordinary orcs were nearly two meters tall, with strong limbs, manic temperament and the ability to endure hunger.
The long-term nomadic life made them natural cavalry, and it was easy to gather a strong mobile force.
No mistake, one post, one content, one 6, one 9, one book, one bar!
Fortunately, they had a very poor sense of discipline, did not understand strategy, formation and coordination of arms, and often rushed forward with their own weapons, which gave the human army a chance to win.
While the hall was talking, Paul Graman led the chief secretary Bernard and the female consultant Miss Dias in.
Everyone stood up and greeted the lord.
"Hello everyone! Please take a seat."
Paul and the other two sat down, and the meeting officially began.