Chapter 133 – Mountain Camp

Chapter 133 – Mountain Camping
It was about fifty kilometers from Osma Castle into Canyon County.

Although the distance wasn’t very far, one needed to go over the mountains on both sides of the Dragon Canyon to enter Canyon County.

The mountain ranges on both sides of the Dragon Canyon did not exceed two thousand meters, and there were multiple mountain passes to enter the canyon.

This canyon led from the southern valley mouth, Victory City, directly to the north near Black River Castle.

It was over two hundred kilometers long from north to south and forty kilometers wide from east to west. The actual area of the Dragon Canyon was a bit larger than even the Taiyuan Basin.

This area was actually more accurately called the Dragon Basin.

The Morning Glory Continent was a fantasy world with a land area that exceeded that of Earth in its previous life. Due to the legends of the ancient dragons, this region had always been named after the Dragon Canyon.

Richard led the coalition of nobles from the two counties and traveled for two days to enter the Canyon County.

But the rebels were prepared and set up guards on the mountain passes.

Richard had never fought a mountain castle attack or defense.

But his opponents occupied a dangerous position, and in order to enter the Dragon Canyon, he had to defeat the mountain pass defenders first.

Attacking the mountain camp on their backs, the deaths and injuries were bound to be heavy.

The private army of Harland’s territory was the root of Richard’s foothold among the nobles, and it must not be consumed in a siege.

So for the initial exploratory attack, Richard gave all of them to the Brenner County serfs.

The serfs moved their feet fearfully, holding simple wooden shields, and slowly approached the rebel camp.

After entering the range of the archers, arrows were continuously shot from the mountain camp.

Richard stared at the density of arrows from the camp, estimating how much long-range projection power was in the camp.

The arrows spread like flying locusts, constantly shooting the serf soldiers into a hornet’s nest.

The casualties increased, and the serf soldiers were stimulated by the blood and immediately routed down. However, they were blocked by the supervisors arranged by Richard.

Acting as the supervisors were the soldiers of Richard’s full-fledged Eighth Squadron.

They hadn’t been organized for a long time, hadn’t completed recruit training, and the soldiers still had a short period of time to practice breathing techniques and less combat experience.

The last battle they fought was also against rebel serf soldiers, and casualties were minimal. It looked like although the equipment was good and the army was in full swing, the real combat power had not yet been tested by the fire of battle.

Seeing the serf soldiers casualties are so large, the war is so cruel.

Many soldiers were suddenly weak in the legs and dry in the throat, and they were a little confused at the sight of the routed soldiers.

Although there were many new recruits, there were still more than thirty veterans in the 8th Squadron. These people all had many years of experience in the army, and they were the backbone core of this new army.

Squadron Leader Claude gave an order, the soldiers swarmed up and grabbed a dozen of the routed soldiers, and the dozen veterans raised their hands and instantly decapitated the routed soldiers that fled back.

Claude ordered the heads of the deserters to be hung on long wooden poles to terrorize the serf soldiers.

Rushing up is also death, escaping back is still death.

This cruel reality directly broke the will of the serf soldiers.

With more than ten percent casualties, the two squadrons of serf soldiers that were trying to attack collapsed, and many of them even took up their weapons. Wanting to fight for their lives with the Supervisors.

Fate on the battlefield favors those who are not afraid of death, the more afraid of death often die faster.

The serf soldiers had already been close to the camp, and now once they collapsed, their backs were exposed to the enemy.

The arrows were densely packed, hitting like rain and shooting into the rows of enemies.

As if cutting wheat, the serf soldiers fell in rows and rows, more than eighty percent of them were hit by arrows in the back.

The value of these people’s lives was really lighter than a hair.

There were only a dozen or so people who dared to fight with the Supervisors, but unfortunately, the equipment and training were far from the regular army, and there was no unified organization.

The deserters who were struggling for their lives were all killed by the 8th Squadron in a matter of moments. In just over an hour, more than three hundred soldiers died on the mountain pass, and the casualties they inflicted on the rebels were not more than ten.

Richard had fought in many wars, and the harsh fires of battle had honed his heart as hard as iron.

Even if the serf soldiers were miserable, they could not attract his sympathy.

Living in a precarious world, if sympathy is too overwhelming, I’m afraid the ones who will get involved will be his own people.

It is an unchanging truth that compassion does not control soldiers.

If you want to command thousands of troops, the most basic quality is a ruthless heart.

Sending untold numbers of soldiers to the battlefield turned into pages of casualty figures.

Loved ones and friends died on the battlefield, all without affecting the will and confidence to fight, such a person can be called a qualified soldier.

In this trial attack today, if Richard had let the 1st Squadron go into battle, with a maximum of twenty to thirty casualties, he would have been able to figure out the defensive strength of the Shandao camp.

Using serf soldiers would require three hundred casualties.

The 1st Squadron was the backbone of Harland’s territory, and many of them had followed Richard many times into death, and they had already had five years of bonding together.

The serfs consumed the strong men controlled by the hereditary nobles of Brenna.

As long as one would analyze the pros and cons, one would know who should be sent into battle?
After consuming two squadrons of serf soldiers, he roughly mapped out the strength of the defense of the mountain road camp.

There were about three hundred soldiers in this camp, and these were not straggler soldiers with farming tools, but soldiers that the Scarlet Horn had secretly nurtured for years.

Their weaponry was already very good, and there should be thirty percent of soldiers equipped with iron armor.

The skills that the soldiers had mastered were also very good, and many of them were already quite good at archery.

According to Richard’s estimation, even if the Wraith Squadron participated in the battle, if they wanted to take down this camp in a regular state, they would have to suffer at least two hundred casualties of the regular army.

After practicing eight squadrons of soldiers with great difficulty, Richard was not prepared to consume them on the battlefield.

At this point in time, he could only take out the hidden cards and use them.

Attacking this kind of mountain camp, the counterweighted stone thrower was very useful.

But the counterweight stone thrower is very heavy, assembling a heavy stone thrower requires more than twenty carloads of wood, and the accessories need to be transported from far away.

It is estimated that it will take more than ten days for the heavy stone thrower to be assembled.

The military situation was urgent, there was simply not that much time left for Richard.

If he wanted to take this mountain camp with less casualties, Richard could only use the alchemy bombs that he had saved up.

Creating magic bombs required a magician to draw explosive runes.

Harland’s territory only had four people counting the magic apprentices.

Adrian’s talent was not good, and he had not advanced to the level of a magician yet, so he could not draw explosive runes for the time being.

The only ones who could produce alchemy bombs were Richard, Sophia, and Wendy.

Richard’s time was particularly tight and drew the least amount of explosive runes.

After Sophia became pregnant, Richard did not allow her to draw explosive runes.

A large portion of the magic bombs in Harland’s territory were made by Wendy, adding up to just over five hundred.

Alchemy bombs were very dangerous, as long as they impacted on hard ground, they would immediately explode.

A one kilogram alchemy bomb produced in Harland’s territory needed to be loaded with three hundred grams of black powder, and its lethality was no weaker than a standard fireball spell.

Professionals who were in the center of the explosion would lose their lives.

(End of chapter)