I will be crowned king

Compared with Norton Crosell's excited and slightly gloomy expression, the three people in the tent who looked at each other were basically indifferent, not to say they were dancing with excitement.

Well, even a little disappointed.

They have been chasing the big fish Borre Levent for nearly four days, and they still have found nothing. Of course, there are various expected difficulties, but it is impossible to say that there is no resentment and disappointment, and it is even possible. Speaking accounts for a large part, eager to get a little bit of good news to relieve the anxiety in my heart.

Obviously at this juncture, the news that "the missing comrade has finally been found" is definitely not good news.

"Ahem...have you finally found it?"

Seeing that the atmosphere was a little awkward, and with the intention of smoothing things over as much as possible to prevent his colleagues from getting off the stage, Karl coughed twice after also showing his disappointment, and forced a smile to look at the man who was so tired that he could hardly even stand still. Norton:

"After missing for so many days, we finally got in touch. This is really good news. You two... what do you think?"

The chief of staff spoke up and winked at the two guys who were slumped on the chairs; the two men who were madly hinted could only hold on to their tired bodies, paused for a moment and tried to smile, although it seemed uglier than crying.

"Yeah, it's great to be able to find it so quickly..."

"How is Lieutenant Colonel Alexei's condition now? Is he injured? What is the attrition of the troops? The losses should not be big, right?"

Although he was trying his best to pretend to care about his comrades, his forced posture was so fake that he seemed to have learned it when he went home to visit relatives.

"That's not what happened!" Norton's expression became even more anxious:

"I just received the information from the Commander-in-Chief, Alexei is currently in the slave hunting port!"

"Slave-catching port, isn't that just right?"

The chief of staff, who still didn't realize the seriousness of the problem, was stunned for a moment and couldn't help but raise his lips: "The main force of the Borre Corps is approaching the slave port, and Ansena...the commander-in-chief is also leading the remaining shooting corps and baggage train. Advancing towards the slave-catching port, just in time for him to quickly meet up, so..."

The words stopped abruptly.

As if he noticed something was wrong, Carl Bain, whose pupils shrank suddenly, looked at the two people who were also shocked, then looked at the anxious Norton, and twitched his throat hard: "You...he...he won't yes……"

"Alexey Dukasky, he is in the slave port!" The anxious Norton repeated again:

"That idiot... he really followed the commander-in-chief's order and led the Second Infantry Regiment to build a position outside the town. The one who blocked the retreat was the Borre Corps!"

"What?!"

"Is he crazy if he dares to block the attack with a regiment?!"

The stunned two people's expressions immediately froze, and their originally relaxed and happy mood flew directly to the sky.

"The commander-in-chief is currently speeding up the march, but there is too much baggage and a large number of artillery that cannot be discarded - the enemy's total strength exceeds 10,000, and even if a mere 2,000 shooting troops arrive in time, it will be useless."

Norton took the water bottle from the hands of the two of them and took two sips. Norton wiped the corner of his mouth that was full of sweat: "If you want to defeat the 10,000 Borei Legion in the Slave Port, you will need at least 3,000 people, which means that you can only One regiment is still in charge of the hunt for Beaure Levent—I've got my regiment ready again."

"You...who is going?!"

"Who stays?!"

…………………………………………

"Boom-boom-boom-!!!"

Heavy roars were accompanied by bursts of explosions, echoing over the smoke-swept Black Reef Port; round after round of scattered, thin, and definitely not uniform shells fell like thrown garbage. On the position of the 2nd Infantry Regiment.

Three-pound cannon, eight-pound cannon, six-pound cavalry cannon, 12-pound cannon, mortars... Most of them basically failed, leaving only clouds of smoke and pits of different sizes on the ground; but some also fell. On the edge of the trench, or on the rammed earth sandbag wall of the fortress, gravel and gravel rained down on the Storm Legion soldiers, forcing them to huddle in their shelters.

Although the enemy only has a dozen artillery pieces of different sizes and sizes, it is already an extremely terrifying firepower for the defenders of the Slave Port, who have a total force of only more than 3,000 people and can only attack more than 2,000 people. ——The only eight-pound cannon captured in the entire army has been turned into a decoration to scare the enemy because it has run out of shells.

Even the identity of this battlefield atmosphere group was forced to be finalized in advance because it was discovered by the "audience" on the opposite side... Stepping on the blast point of our own artillery fire, thousands of Jihadi soldiers formed their accustomed dense phalanx, Begin to advance slowly towards the position.

The defenders had no choice but to fight. More than a thousand line infantrymen of the Second Infantry Regiment quickly entered the position and began to fire freely at the enemy.

Originally, according to Alexei's arrangement, his Second Infantry Regiment should be used as a last resort and should not be thrown into battle unless it was absolutely necessary. However, he soon found that it was simpler: after experiencing the initial retreat and After gathering, the remaining militiamen in the slave port are all the scum of the scum, literally rotten fish and shrimps. It is expected that they will fight with less difficulty than one against a thousand.

If the militiamen of the New World Legion are the atmosphere group on the battlefield, and can only perform deceptive pretense to kill the enemy during the shooting stage, then this group of militiamen can almost only be a "long shot": let the enemy attack our own side at the beginning of the war. The misunderstanding of military strength is infinitely close to the nature of a scarecrow that deceives crows.

Not to mention being placed in the forward position as cannon fodder to hinder the enemy's attack, even if they were allowed to fire at Alexey from a distance, they would not be completely at ease - who can guarantee that these scum will not panic and directly target their own people? Fire from behind?

Smoke billowed out from the black holes of the guns. As some of the slowly advancing Jihadi soldiers fell down one after another, they did not fire back. Instead, they quickened their pace and continued to move forward, stepping on the corpses of the soldiers and the flags soaked in mud.

In order to use a small number of troops to prevent the defeat of the Borre Corps, which was several times his own strength, Alexey put a lot of effort into the position structure; almost every small fort was surrounded by large trenches and low walls to block it, which could effectively Delaying the enemy's advancing speed and forcing them to stop greatly increases the soldiers' chance of hitting.

In addition, the Storm Legion almost made every soldier have a Leopold rifle, and the rate of fire was basically twice that of ordinary muzzle-loading guns, which barely smoothed out the gap in infantry firepower between the two sides.

But in comparison, the gap in numbers is not so easy to fill.

After a brief confrontation, the second infantry regiment, which was short of troops, had to withdraw from the outer defense line and shrink its troops to the trenches and small fortresses further inside; the Jihadi soldiers who had taken the position had to divide their troops to garrison while continuing to move inward. Advance.

Entering the interior of the defense line, there are crowded and narrow trenches and small fortresses that can only accommodate half a platoon or twenty or thirty people, forked roads and corners, fences and curtain walls... Various defense facilities begin to maximize the advantage of the Jihadist Army; even a company By attacking a fortress at the same time, two or three soldiers can hold the entire trench and force the enemy to retreat.

Even so, the Crusaders are still attacking desperately, even if they throw away enough corpses to block the trenches; seeing the enemy advance with their robes and skeletons on their shoulders, the Storm Legion soldiers guarding the fortress can only silently give up their rifles. Hit the bayonet, pull out the prepared shotgun, and rush forward to engage the enemy in close combat.

Bloody and brutal hand-to-hand combat was staged one after another in trenches, fortresses, mud pits and foxholes; the screams of flesh and blood being torn apart by bayonets, lead bullets piercing the torso, and the roar of gunpowder barrels and grenade explosions. In response, the dirty soil was covered with flowing blood and turned into a dangerous swamp.

Even so, the Borre Corps was still unable to break through the defense line of the 2nd Infantry Regiment; the soldiers on both sides were like two torrents, completely blended together.

"Such fighting qualities and morale... they are indeed Clovis people. Those deserters really didn't lie..."

In the artillery position of the Borre Corps, Pavel Dukaski, who was observing the battlefield through binoculars, murmured to himself; although the thick smoke obscured most of the battlefield, he still relied on his past experience to find the most intense location of the battle. From the stalemate position, one could tell at a glance that the enemy on the other side was not colonial thugs at all, but the standard Clovis Royal Army.

Of course, what he didn't know was that if the Storm Legion heard about it, they would definitely laugh out loud - at least more than 70% of the time, this army has nothing to do with the real Wang Army. The cannon fodder who went to the battlefield and volunteered to fill the trenches was recruited into the corps.

But this group of Clovis people who were born as cannon fodder are now firmly blocking the retreat route of the Borre Corps. They have built a barely stable defense line in the slave port that is easy to attack and difficult to defend. Not only did it not collapse at the first touch, it even It has blocked the repeated attacks of the defeated soldiers for many days.

In the eyes of the imperial army, which is accustomed to spending a lot of money, this so-called defense line is simply okay. As long as it concentrates its superior artillery fire and bombards it repeatedly, collapse is only a matter of time.

It doesn't even matter if you don't have to attack - the slave port is surrounded by large tracts of plains. You can send cavalry to bypass the slave port, occupy the slave port, and then attack or besiege it from both sides at the same time. After three days, you will definitely run out of ammunition and food, and you will either commit suicide or surrender. , there will be no third way.

The problem is that the Borre Corps, which has just successfully broken through, has basically very few artillery and cavalry left, and can only rely on the infantry, which they originally despised and used as cannon fodder, as the main force.

Moreover, the person who lacks the most time now is myself...

Putting down the monocular in his hand, Pavel sighed softly and looked up at his adjutant: "Is there any news about the whereabouts of the infidel army?"

"not yet!"

The "adjutant" in question answered loudly, without any trace of humility and respect in his demeanor and movements, and held his chin high: "Since the second departure, Commander Beaure Levent has not sent us a messenger again. Soldiers, I only know that there are about 5,000 Clovis people who are going around to rescue the colonies captured by the legion commander, and they have no time to pay attention to the direction of the slave port."

"As for the enemies in Strawtown, perhaps because they are cleaning up the battlefield, they are moving towards the slave port very slowly. It will take at least four to five days before they can arrive."

"...Are you sure?"

"In the name of the Levent family, I am absolutely telling the truth!"

As if he had been greatly insulted, the adjutant who was just asked by Pavel blushed instantly, glared at him and growled: "If you don't believe in my judgment, please fire me immediately. , wouldn’t it be better to change to an adjutant that makes you more comfortable to use?!”

"That's not what I meant... forget it." The helpless Pavel sighed, turned his head and looked in the direction of the battlefield again, avoiding the adjutant's proud and somewhat complacent gaze.

The other party is an adjutant in name, but in fact he is the supervisor assigned to him by the legion commander... It would be the same for him. No matter how much he trusts his subordinates, he cannot unconditionally hand over the military power of the main army, let alone the Levent family. His own private soldiers; even if Bo Lei is willing, his relatives are unlikely to be willing.

Although he knew that he willingly took on such an unlucky job, Pavel couldn't help but roll his eyes in his heart and lamented why he was the unlucky person.

But if we want to talk about the benefits, it is not completely without... With the power of commanding the legion, Pavel can completely let the private soldiers of the Levent family in the army, especially the knights, charge into the battle and save the Dukaski family. Strength; using Levent's blood in exchange for his achievements in recapturing the slave port and saving the Holy War Legion.

With a cruel smile, Pavel said in a deep voice without looking back: "How is the preparation of the assault army? Can it go into battle immediately?"

"You can do it at any time!" The adjutant, who was unaware of the problem, responded immediately, still extremely proud:

"As long as you give the order, acting army commander, they will crush the Clovis people on the opposite side into mincemeat as quickly as possible!"

"Very good, let's start taking action." Pavel nodded slightly, looking very pleased:

"The infantry of the Dukaski family has completely entangled the enemy from the front. At this time, as long as the assault legion launches an attack from the side, presumably with their strength, it should not be a problem to defeat the enemy before tonight."

"That's natural!"

The adjutant snorted softly, turned around and left without looking back, and rushed to the position to deliver the order in a hurry.

It was precisely because he walked so fast that he didn't notice Pavel staring at his back from the beginning to the end.

Ten minutes later, an unnoticed young man wearing a priest's robe quietly walked up behind Pavel and saluted him respectfully: "Sir, everything is ready."

Pavel sighed and looked at the visitor with an extremely complicated expression: "I won't ask you how you did it. Anyway, the price was agreed upon by us from the beginning."

"Two thousand...two thousand heads of the Levent family will give our Dukaski family a way out!"

The original title of this chapter is "Who goes! Who stays!" (*) I almost typed it wrong.