Ride and Cut

This winter is surprisingly cold, which has already become the consensus of everyone.

In previous years, when the water on the ground would not freeze, the first real heavy snow had already begun.

Countless goose-feather-like snowflakes are floating down in the sky, occasionally swaying gently with the wind, as gentle as a lover's touch. But these gentle flakes eventually fall to the ground and become part of the snowpack. Snow is not gentle, it makes the world chill and everything withered.

In this blizzard, Seedorf stood on the top of the cold winter city wall, quietly watching the vast land outside the city covered with snow and covered in silver. There was a look of worry on his weather-beaten and gray-haired face.

Although his sight was obscured by the wind and snow, he knew that apart from the large tracts of farmland temporarily dormant waiting to re-germinate next year, there was also a heavily assembled Pompeii army preparing to attack the city.

Behind him, more than a dozen powerful Stuart generals stood motionless, letting snowflakes accumulate on their heads and shoulders.

"Is there still no news?" Seedorf said suddenly, and his voice was heard far away on the quiet and cold city wall. A spear-wielding soldier stood guard at every two crenels on the top of the wall, but they didn't respond at all, as quiet as metal sculptures.

"No news, nothing." Seedorf's voice, although respectful, contained an irrepressible anger. "I really don't know what those adults in the capital are thinking. They were the ones who declared war! Now they are the ones who are pretending to be dead!"

All the Stuart soldiers in Winter City have a heart problem - since their country and Pompeii declared war on each other, everything was normal at first. As the front line of the war, Winter City has received a lot of logistical and reinforcement support. At the peak, nearly 300,000 troops, two dragon knights and half of the court mages gathered, enough to support the largest battle.

At that time, everyone was suffocating in their hearts and vowed to fight for His Majesty to the last moment, so that the Pompeian barbarians would know how powerful the Stuarts are.

But I don't know from which day, the situation gradually became wrong.

The reinforcements from other provinces were dispatched one by one, and the delivery of materials, which was originally in full swing, soon stopped. Facing the needs of the front line of the war, the rear showed a shocking, even incomprehensible perfunctory.

When the Pompeians began to assemble their army, set off, and even entered the territory of Stuart. The army with high morale that had been assembled in Cold Winter City was being dismantled and repatriated. Legion by legion of the regular army withdrew from the establishment, all the court mages waved goodbye, and even the two dragon knights let out a long sigh and reluctantly lifted off to leave.

In the end, only the city guards remained, just like in the beginning.

Everyone who has any sense of responsibility denounces this malfeasance, but to no avail.

Some soldiers from the legions that should have been transferred even sneaked away and asked to stay and fight, and their commanders also chose to acquiesce. But compared with the scale it should be - it's not enough.

How absurd all this is, facing a great war concerning the fate of the country, it seems that Winter City has been forgotten by the entire empire. Even the soldiers know how to serve the country, but those big men are like ostriches, thinking that they can avoid danger by burying their heads in the sand.

The Pompeii are approaching day by day, and the rear is also perfunctory day by day.

After the soldiers approached the city, Seedorf even sent the Griffin Sky Knight as a special envoy to fly to the capital, but what he got was still perfunctory. That venerable knight flew back overnight, cut his cheek with a dining knife and vowed to live and die with the city, and everyone in the know couldn't help crying—for the bravery of the knight, and for the stupidity of the bureaucracy.

Perfunctory, perfunctory, perfunctory, always only perfunctory.

Reinforcements and logistics are very tight, and only perfunctory supplies have always been sufficient.

It's not even as good as those volunteer soldiers who came here spontaneously. Professional sergeants would dislike them for being unprofessional in the past, but now they look at these respectable people with admiration.

Seedorf had to start thinking about an almost unsolvable question, how to use the power of a province to fight against a country? It may not be a wise choice to stick to Winter City, but right now, it is the only choice.

Because there are only 30,000 city guards and 10,000 civilian volunteers under his command, while the Pompeians have a full 200,000.

"Don't be angry, Bernard, anger will only make your mind impulsive." Seedorf's voice was still calm and firm. Fifty years of military career has made him understand that emotions are harmful to generals and should be avoided as much as possible.

"Yes, my lord." As a powerful general, Bernard was definitely not a respondent who only wanted to please his superiors. But at this moment, he immediately nodded slightly, not daring to show any dissatisfaction.

"We can only do what we have to do. As for the rest, we leave it to the God of Light." Seedorf turned around and patted Berner on the shoulder, grinning unexpectedly.

"Follow your instruction." Bernard felt his heart warm up, even the wind and snow seemed not so cold.

If it is said that Winter City has even a half chance of winning against Pompeii's attack, then the half chance of winning does not lie in the 30,000 elite city guards, the dozen or so experienced high-ranking officers, or even the mages staying in the city.

But for the man in front of him who was wearing an old armor, with age spots all over his face, and even his back was beginning to bend—Seedorf.

To be fair, he wasn't the ever-victorious general that bards like to sing about, and he wasn't far from talented in his claims. Since joining the army at a young age, as the background board for those so-called geniuses, he has suffered countless miserable failures.

Whether against Pompeii, San José, rebellious vassals, or wild goblins, he had tasted defeat. From experience, completely unremarkable.

But Seedorf has perseverance and perseverance that ordinary people can hardly imagine!

Defeats have never completely broken him down. No matter how much he laments the injustice of fate, no matter how much he cries in the middle of the night, he can always bear all the pressure silently, stand up again and again, dress neatly and wait for the next expedition.

When he fails once, he grows a little bit. Correct the mistakes you have made little by little, summarize your opponent's experience little by little, and examine yourself whether there are any shortcomings. Imprint everything deeply in my mind like instinct, and dare not forget it even for a moment.

Failure is the best school, what it can teach people, no matter how many times you succeed, it is difficult to give.

This slow but steady progress, given enough time, eventually produces a monster that is almost infallible. Many so-called geniuses were eventually defeated by Seedorf, like a bright meteor piercing through the sky but finally falling to the earth, and they have never been able to recover after a setback.

Perhaps it is really limited by talent, he is rarely able to command unconstrained attacks. But in terms of defense, looking at the entire continent, it is difficult to find a more watertight general than him.

He is a living legend in the Stuart military - "The Rock" Seedorf.

"Let's go." Seedorf was still wearing the cloak he got when he graduated from the military academy. The bright red color of the year has faded after decades of training, and it looks a little yellowish.

"There are only 40,000 people, so how to arrange them has to be carefully calculated." The old man's eyes were as clear as when he was young.