Lord Harland

After formulating the plan, Viscount Nero immediately arranged for the officers to take action. The nobles gathered their cavalry together and all the packhorse vehicles in the castle were gathered to carry food and families.

Viscount Nero temporarily promoted a group of soldiers with good performance and followed him out of the city to contain Richard's army.

Early the next morning, the defenders opened the city gate, slowly walked out of the castle, and arranged their troops.

Richard was shocked when he received the information from the scouts.

"Viscount Nero has been holding on to the castle for several months and behaved very cautiously. I don't know why he led the soldiers out of the city? Has the food in the city been exhausted? But through aerial reconnaissance, there are still many enemy food stations. They should be returned You can hold on for a while, why are you so impatient to leave the city?

Could it be that Baron Sharp really guessed it right? Have deep conflicts accumulated within the enemy? Yes, Viscount Nero is also commanding a coalition of nobles, and he has the same different ideas as us. The siege lasted for more than two months, and everyone was now in difficulty. The commander also had to consider the following thoughts. It was probably that the nobles in the city lost their composure and forced Viscount Nero to go out to fight. "

Richard thought to himself and had several ideas in his mind. The morale of the coalition forces in the three provinces is not very high now, and today's battle may have to rely on the soldiers from the Haaland territory.

"Pass my order, the infantry of Harland Territory and the nobles of Gedda Province will form the center army, and the nobles of Lach Province will form the right wing. All the cavalry in the camp will be assembled and unified under the command of Baron Soros, and the cavalry will form the left wing. Soldiers Follow me out of camp to meet the enemy.”

After Richard handed down the order, the soldiers quickly gathered together, formed a dense military formation, and slowly walked out of the camp.

When the soldiers stood in formation, Richard shouted: "It has been more than three months since we left our hometown in February. I know everyone misses their families. After months of fighting outside, Living conditions are difficult, sacrifices must be made at any time, and homesickness is human nature.

In the past three months, we have won many battles, eliminated the enemy several times, and gained a large amount of loot. I know in my heart that everyone has gained a lot, and I am not willing to fight the enemy desperately.

But the course of the war does not depend on our will. We do not want to fight desperately, but the enemy is unwilling to let us go. The enemy wants to seek revenge from us and rob us of our loot. We want to keep our gold coins and slaves. The only way is to kill the enemy.

I, Richard Harland, am your commander and I am willing to set an example for everyone. I will stand in the front row of soldiers and lead you to win this war.

There is no retreat in this battle. No matter who takes a step back, the swords and guns of the supervising team will not recognize anyone. If I take a step back, please supervise the chopping off of my head to pay homage to the souls of those who died in battle.

Let us cheer, victory belongs to us! "

Richard's pre-war mobilization still played a certain role. He had a high prestige in the army and stood in the front row, which greatly boosted the morale of the army.

After the two armies formed their formations, they slowly began to approach.

The first one to launch was still the heavy trebuchet. The magicians in Harland's territory had marked the trajectory in advance. They commanded the auxiliary squadron, launched the trebuchet, and projected alchemy bombs one after another.

In an instant, hundreds of alchemy bombs were projected, and more than half of them exploded in the enemy's formation, causing heavy casualties to the enemy.

Just one round of alchemical bombing caused more than 100 injuries to Viscount Nero's soldiers.

Seeing that the trebuchet was still firing, the junior officers under Viscount Nero kept urging the soldiers.

"Raise your shield, raise your shield, raise your shield quickly. Hide your body behind the shield and use the shield to protect yourself."

Although the power of the alchemy bomb in Harland's territory is not as powerful as the original version, it cannot be blocked by a layer of shield. Although the soldiers held up shields to reduce casualties, under the continuous projection of trebuchets, the shrapnel splashed by the alchemy bomb explosion penetrated the shields, causing heavy casualties.

"Everyone speed up. If we take another fifty steps, we can avoid the trebuchet range."

The officers at the grassroots level kept shouting, and the soldiers' pace quickened a bit.

In just a few minutes, the soldiers led by Viscount Nero were hit by more than 200 alchemical bombs, and more than 300 soldiers were killed or injured.

The wounded soldiers wailed miserably, but in the fierce war, neither the enemy nor we cared about them.

The army under Viscount Nero and the noble officers were basically deployed to participate in the breakout battle. There was a lack of officer command on the frontal battlefield. After suffering casualties, it immediately became a bit chaotic.

The messengers under Viscount Nero kept shouting, conveying the commander's orders, boosting morale and stabilizing the morale of the troops.

As the two armies slowly approached, they entered the range of the archers.

For a moment, both sides drew their bows and nocked arrows, and a hail of arrows shot at the enemy.

"Raise the shield, raise the shield. The shield hand should pay attention to his feet to avoid tripping over obstacles. Observe the situation around you, pay attention to protecting the flanks of your comrades, and maintain the integrity of the line."

"When shooting an arrow, your hand must be steady, not tense, and relaxed."

"Prick up your ears and listen carefully to the orders. The formation must be neat and not scattered."

"Don't go too fast, don't step too far, keep an eye on your comrades, and form a tight formation."

Richard stood in the front row, listening to the orders issued by his veterans.

The soldiers in Harland's territory are not only well-equipped, with armor coverage far exceeding that of the enemy, they also have more war experience than the enemy, and have a more stable mentality.

The long-range archers' exchange of fire also gave Harland's territory soldiers the upper hand.

The enemy lacks professional officers, and with enchanted crossbows and ordinary feather arrows, it is difficult to shoot through the enchanted armor worn by the front row soldiers.

After several rounds of shooting, Viscount Nero's soldiers suffered more and more casualties, and their faces became frightened.

The two sides were getting closer and closer, entering the range of the grenadiers.

At Richard's order, the infantrymen in Haaland Territory threw alchemy bombs one after another, successfully inflicting heavy damage on the enemy once again.

Several rounds of long-range strikes caused more than 600 casualties in Viscount Nero's army.

Viscount Nero's central army only had a total of 3,000 men. After suffering such heavy casualties, the morale of the army was immediately unstable. Seeing that the hand-to-hand combat was approaching, Viscount Nero took the lead and launched a counterattack with some soldiers.

The soldiers of the Chinese army were the most elite and took the lead in fighting the enemy. Burton on the right commanded 5,000 soldiers from the province of Lach and also faced the enemy. Burton's opponent's line was relatively weak, with only 2,000 soldiers.

As soon as the two sides met, Burton gained the upper hand due to his numerical advantage.

The left wing was led by Thoros, who, with two thousand cavalry, charged directly at the enemy. The number of enemies was only 2,000, and their front line was not particularly complete. They could not stop the elite cavalry from charging.

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Especially the one hundred and fifty Warcraft Cavalry led by Thoros, their impact was extremely powerful. They defeated an enemy squadron in an instant, opened a gap, and broke through the enemy's formation.

In just a few minutes, the enemy forces on the left wing could no longer maintain their front line and fell into a difficult situation.

Just after Soros led the cavalry to join the battle, a group of cavalry suddenly rushed out of Fort Nero. This group of cavalry did not entangle with the enemy and fled the city in a hurry.

After Soros defeated the enemies on the left, they had already fled far away, and many people escaped from Nero's castle.

Soros weighed it for a while and decided to give up chasing the enemy. He thought very clearly that once he divided his forces to pursue this enemy, he would inevitably fall into fierce resistance, and the casualties of the three-province coalition forces would increase.

In the current situation, the morale of the coalition forces from the three provinces is not high and they cannot bear too many casualties. It is better to let this enemy go.

Seeing the enemy fleeing, Soros immediately ordered half of the cavalry to block Nero's castle to prevent the people in the castle from escaping in the chaos.

Soros knew in his heart that there were nearly 100,000 people in the castle, and these people would be the spoils of the coalition forces of the three provinces. Compared to these 100,000 people, the fleeing enemies are insignificant. Even if these people want to take revenge, the one who has a headache is Duke Jonathan, the new nobleman who occupies this territory.

The remaining half of the cavalry, led by Thoros, attacked the center army led by Viscount Nero from the side.

Seeing the cavalry attacking from the side, the central army led by Viscount Nero was already unable to hold on due to heavy casualties. Now the situation has become worse. Many soldiers abandoned their weapons, immediately collapsed, and fled around.

In an instant, the army was defeated like a mountain. Viscount Nero let out a long sigh, slapped his horse hard, and left the battlefield to escape alone.

Viscount Nero was a ninth-level epic knight with extremely strong combat effectiveness. Although there were only a few soldiers following him, he still easily broke through the siege of cavalry, killed more than a dozen soldiers, and successfully broke out.

Thoros was about to lead the Warcraft Cavalry to pursue him when he was stopped by Richard's order.

Although the battle lasted a short time, Richard could clearly see the lethality of the ninth-level knights. If he wanted to kill this person, at least dozens of Warcraft Cavalry would have to be sacrificed, and perhaps important officers would also die. In the hands of this person.

Now that the battle has been won, Richard is unwilling to cause trouble to prevent the enemy from jumping over the wall in a hurry, causing heavy casualties to the Warcraft cavalry. He thought for a moment and decided to let this person go.

This battle can be called a win-win for both warring parties. Most of the nobles in central Stanik successfully broke through and saved their lives. The three-province coalition led by Richard also defeated the enemy, captured Nero's Castle, and completed Duke Jonathan's military order.

Viscount Nero was wearing gorgeous armor and looked like a big shot. As soon as he escaped, the morale of the army was in chaos. The aristocratic coalition forces of the center army and the right wing dispersed immediately. Many soldiers actually fled into Nero's castle in order to protect their families.

Thoros led the cavalry and chased the defeated troops into Nero's Castle, cooperating with the infantry to enter the city and control the situation first.

After taking control of the four city gates, Richard immediately sent orders to count casualties, clean the battlefield, and capture prisoners.

By noon, the staff officers had returned to the Chinese army's tent and had counted the casualties.

"What are the casualties?"

"Forty-one of our soldiers were killed and 116 were lightly or seriously wounded. The coalition of nobles from the Gedda Province commanded by Baron Sharp suffered 28 killed and 59 were lightly or seriously wounded. The Lach Province commanded by Sir Burton The coalition of nobles suffered seventy-one deaths and one hundred and eighty-seven minor and serious injuries.”

After listening to the staff officer's report, Richard nodded slightly and said: "The total casualties are about 500, and the number of soldiers killed in battle is less than 150."

"Your Excellency, under your command, we won a brilliant victory. We killed more than 800 enemies and captured more than 3,400 prisoners. More than 2,000 defeated soldiers fled into Nero's castle. , five to six hundred people fled into the wilderness, and only about five hundred enemies broke through."

"Although we have won the battle, we cannot relax now. The defeated troops in Nero's castle must be counted as soon as possible, and the food in the city must be counted immediately."

Richard is the commander of the coalition forces and has a longer-term vision than others. Although he won the battle, it took several months to seize the enemy's internal flaws and defeat the opponent. But he himself is also very clear about his own situation.

Nowadays, the three-province coalition army is already a plundered army. After a few months of expedition, the homesickness has become more serious. From top to bottom, they don't want to fight a tough battle. The morale of the army is far worse than a few months ago.

Now if we want to restore morale, we can only indulge the soldiers in robbing and killing, and indulge the soldiers' accumulated violence.

But if this happens, military discipline will no longer be maintained, and it will become increasingly difficult to manage the soldiers after they return to their territory.

Richard was unwilling to do this unless he had to. Fortunately, this battle was an unprecedented victory. Relying on the prestige brought by the victory, Richard could barely control the soldiers and maintain the seriousness of military discipline.

After capturing Nero's castle, Richard decided to let the soldiers rest for three days.

Three days later, the coalition forces from the three provinces had counted the prisoners, and the situation in Nero's Castle had calmed down.

Richard asked the staff officer to do a rough inventory and found that there were more than 90,000 people in the city, more than 5,600 prisoners, and about 700 people with minor or serious injuries.

Through observation, the staff officers found that the captives were unstable and worried about being slaughtered by the coalition forces. After reporting the situation, Richard immediately ordered the doctors and mages accompanying the army to take time to treat the injured prisoners.

Through this incident, the mental pressure of the prisoners was relieved and they let go of some of their worries.

At noon, Richard ordered all the main officers to go to the city lord's mansion for a meeting.

"Have you calculated the food supply in Nero's Castle clearly?"

"There are more than twenty warehouses in the castle, and the total grain storage is 1,900 tons, which is only enough to feed the city's population for about a month." The logistics staff stood up and introduced the grain reserves.

This year, the central Stanik region experienced war, which delayed the farming season. The nearby nobles implemented the order of strengthening the walls and clearing the country, and concentrated the main population in Nero's Castle. The land of more than 10,000 square kilometers nearby was almost useless.

There were hundreds of thousands of people in this area. Some were captured by the coalition forces of the three provinces, some were concentrated in Nero Castle, some fled into the west and south of Stanik, and a small number fled into the mountains and became savages. Many people also died on the way due to war and starvation.

After several months of brutal war, the more than 10,000 square kilometers of land near Nero's Castle were already covered in bones and there were no roosters crowing for thousands of miles.

Although Richard and his soldiers sowed some seeds during the siege, no one was cultivating them. Coupled with the lack of rain this year, the summer harvest yield was pitiful. Compared with a population of more than 100,000, it was almost a drop in the bucket.