Chapter 293 – The Coming of the Great War
Chapter 293 – The Great War is Coming
Harland Territory had developed for more than ten years, and for the first time this year, there was a financial deficit, amounting to thirty-seven thousand gold coins, which accounted for eight point six percent of the financial revenue.
In the previous years, the financial surplus of Harland’s territory added up to about 100,000 gold coins, so a financial deficit of 37,000 gold coins wasn’t particularly serious. Relying on the gold coins saved in the vault, the deficit could be filled.
After the financial meeting, it was soon time for the Goddess Birthday Festival.
The Goddess Birthday Festival was the ultimate festival of the Grant Kingdom, even though most of the nobles were followers of the God of Kingship and Order, and the influence of the Church of Kingship was not as deep as the Church of the Morning Sun in the Grant Kingdom.
During the Goddess Birthday Festival, the Harland Territory would take a ten-day vacation.
Even the heavily guarded factories and research institutes, except for those who needed to be on duty, all returned home to spend the holiday with their families.
During the Goddess’ Birthday Festival, the stores in Harland’s territory were especially prosperous, and craftsmen would sell all kinds of small goods on the streets.
Because of the brutal environment of the Northern Frontier, the residents of this region didn’t like to save much, and both the high-income people and the ordinary people had the style of having fun in a timely manner.
This kind of national characteristic is actually not very conducive to capital accumulation.
However, changing the social atmosphere and changing people’s concepts is not an easy thing.
Despite Richard’s prestige in the Harland Territory, he could at most gather people’s hearts and assimilate the population from different ethnic groups into the Harland Territory people, and a full reshaping of the Harland Territory people’s ethnicity could only be left to the next generation.
Shortly after the Goddess Birthday Festival, the six elementary schools in Harland Territory had begun recruiting.
This year Richard once again lowered the tuition fees, lowering the elementary school year tuition to two silver coins and fifteen copper coins, and requiring free breakfasts to be provided in the schools. Even though these breakfasts only consisted of goat’s milk and whole-wheat black bread, it could still reduce the burden for children from ordinary families.
The tuition fee was lowered, and the size of the free people increased dramatically, with over sixteen hundred children enrolled this year. On average, each school has enrolled six or seven classes of students.
After the Goddess Birthday Festival, Wendy personally went to Nolan and used three hundred magic crystals to exchange a crystal ball for testing qualifications with the Grant Mage Association.
A dozen magicians from the Harland territory all went out and tested the qualifications of the sixteen hundred children newly enrolled in school, from which fourteen students with magical qualifications were found, and there was one person with medium qualifications as well.
These students with magical qualifications received focused attention from their teachers, and after they started practicing meditation, they would join the Harland Mage Association, replenishing the Mage Association with nutrients.
Entering the month of February, the soldiers of Harland’s territory began to mobilize and enter emergency alert.
The magical hot air balloon troops, and the lion overpowered cavalry all began to ascend into the air, scouting towards the northern region of the Eagle Mountain Range, looking for the orcs’ whereabouts.
The Scout Cavalry Brigade would also send their elites to coordinate with the aerial scouting force.
After years of development, now Harland Territory was equipped with a total of three magical hot air balloon squadrons, each squadron equipped with eight hot air balloon groups, together with the hot air balloon groups that were organized at the headquarters, more than thirty groups of hot air balloons could be lifted up into the air for combat.
After four years of training, the Lion Overwhelmed Cavalry had produced seven Lion Overwhelmed Knights, and the captured Lion Rash Eggs of that year had also hatched successfully, in addition to the Lion Rash population expanding a bit in the last few years, with the number of Lion Rash Cubs exceeding ten.
By the time the next orc invasion happened, there should be two lion wasp squads available.
Due to the magical hot air balloon team, there were third-order divine archers restraining the Hawkmen, the aerial reconnaissance power of Harland’s territory could already compete with the aerial reconnaissance power of an orc legion.
However, the situation in the northern border area remained unchanged, in order to avoid stimulating the orcs to fight for their lives, Richard ordered to reduce the aerial reconnaissance efforts, and still focus on ground reconnaissance.
Orcs in the war with humans, the reason why they can take the initiative, in addition to the strength of many people have the advantage of strength, the reconnaissance force occupies an overwhelming advantage is also an important reason.
Once the orcs realize that Harland’s collar has cultivated a large number of aerial reconnaissance forces, they will inevitably focus their efforts on knocking out Harland’s collar.
Although Harland’s territory has developed rapidly in the past few years, it is not comparable to the huge orc empire.
The wind is still given to the Grant family to come out, then even if the sky collapses, there is also a tall man to top.
Through frequent scouting, the orc army was gradually exposed in Richard’s eyes.
This time the orcs really drew a large army and surged towards Harland’s Collar, according to the scout’s estimation, the orcs that appeared in the northern region of Harland’s Collar already had three legions, more than 100,000 troops.
This powerful force, relying on Harland Territory alone was simply impossible to counteract.
In order to ensure that the intelligence was true, Harland Territory had lost four magic hot air balloons, and more than a few dozen scout cavalrymen were killed and missing in action. Even the Lion Overwhelming Cavalry, two were injured, and one Lion Overwhelming was injured so badly that it might not be able to fly in the air in the future.
Having detected the main orc marching route, Richard immediately wrote a letter of request for help to the main legion in the rear.
Because of the overall weakness of the scouting force, Grant Kingdom’s strategy has always been to divide and conquer, consume the orcs’ strength, and then wait for the orcs to withdraw.
Such a strategy was very passive, and every time the orcs invaded, the northern border region lost a lot.
But the scouting force was no match for the orcs, and any active attack was unilaterally transparent to the orc army.
Rashly leaving the fortified castle, leaving the defense line that has been operating for many years, will inevitably lead to heavy losses.
Years of war experience has also proved this point, a few years ago, the Grizzly Bear Legion was hit by the orcs around the point to fight strategy, almost wiped out the whole army.
Berserker army also because of the detection of the orcs main force, hastily sent troops with the orcs main force duel, fell into the orcs trap heavy losses.
After receiving the letter from Harland’s territory, the Northern Legion Chief Raber didn’t go out rashly, he first sent a main brigade plus 1,000 auxiliaries to enter the Platos Fortress Group, and guarded this important mountain road with several hundred soldiers left in Baron Sharp’s territory.
Then he ordered a coalition of nobles from the counties of Black River and Roma, with a combined force of 4,000 men, to move into Harland’s Domain.
Although the first batch of reinforcements was only four thousand, Richard still showed great joy and dispatched the four thousand noble allied troops into the middle of Salt Lake County’s North Boundary Fort.
Salt Lake County is located in the middle of the two counties of Harland’s territory, once this county is lost, the east and west counties of Harland’s territory will be separated, and then the first and the last can not take care of each other, and it is easy to be divided by the orcs to encircle and annihilate.
Salt Lake County is a very important geographic location, and is a key point in the defense of Harland’s territory, but due to the limitation of the number of soldiers, there are only 4,000 defenders in this area.
Among the 4,000 defenders, the main two brigades have 3,000 people, and the auxiliary soldiers and local security forces are close to 1,000.
Despite having four thousand soldiers defending the area, it was still the weak point of the defense line. This area was equivalent to the spawn of Harland’s territory, once pinched by the orcs, it would easily fall into passivity.
Before the war broke out, Richard had planned to draw soldiers to strengthen the defense of Salt Lake County, and now the four thousand people sent by the two counties’ noble coalition could just strengthen this direction, and together with these four thousand reinforcements, the garrison of Salt Lake County already had eight thousand people.
With eight thousand men guarding Salt Lake County, the orcs would not be able to pose a threat unless they deployed legion level forces. The rest of the troops, Richard could hold in his hands and act as a general reserve.
In order to unify the command, Richard appointed Viscount Rommen as the commander of the Salt Lake County garrison, and the 6th Brigade Brigadier Jennings as the deputy commander.
Harland territory was now divided into two counties with a total area of 56,000 square kilometers, and needed to be defended over a front of about 400 kilometers from east to west.
For these four hundred kilometers of defense line, there were a total of four defense priorities.
The westernmost was the Platos Fortress Complex, because the Northern Legion had sent reinforcements, Harland Territory did not need to send reinforcements for the time being.
According to the aerial reconnaissance, there was about half a legion of orc army in the northern part of the Platos defense line.
The area east of Platos was the core of Harland’s territory, from Fort Sophia and Fort William to Fort Hyrule and Swamp Basin were the focus of Harland’s territory’s operations.
In this direction, Harland’s territory has a large army stationed in the Swamp Basin, which not only has a brigade of troops stationed there, but also has half a mage regiment, and a brigade of troops is also stationed in Fort Hyrule.
Fort William is the headquarters of Harland’s territory, there are three brigades of infantry, a brigade of beast cavalry, half a brigade of scouts, magic hot air balloon squadron, concentrating the main force of seven thousand troops.
The garrison of the three castles together, the number of more than ten thousand, if the war is urgent, mobilize auxiliary soldiers, security, intelligence and other second-line combatants, can be deployed to the army of fifteen thousand people.
Only the auxiliary soldiers, law and order, intelligence and other second line forces could only fight the battle of defending the castle, they could not fight the field battle and defeat the orcs head on.
To the east of the Hyrule Fortress Passage was Salt Lake County, an area supported by the nobles of the two counties of Gerda Province, with a total of eight thousand defenders.
The easternmost part is Grota River County, this county’s defense force is divided into three castles, with a total of four brigades of infantry, five squadrons of scout cavalry, and one squadron of magical hot air balloons, with a main force of about seven thousand men.
If fighting a defensive battle, two thousand auxiliary soldiers can also be sent to cooperate in the battle.
The defending forces of the four regions combined totaled thirty-five thousand soldiers, but the only ones that really had stronger fighting strength and surpassed the orcs in a head-to-head duel were the twenty thousand regular troops of Harland’s territory.
Through reconnaissance, the orc army coming towards Harland’s territory exceeded three legions, totaling about 100,000 orc army.
The first ones to engage Harland’s territory were the Grota River County orcs.
Fort Canyon was located in the northernmost part of Grota River County, this castle was located in the eastern part of the Eagle Mountain Range, and it was only one hundred and eighty kilometers away from the Legendary Green Dragon’s lair.
In the vicinity of the castle, there were occasional activities of the genus Aragon. In order to avoid irritating the Legendary Green Dragon, the Demon Hunting Team of Harland’s Leader, basically didn’t operate in this area either.
During the period of time when they controlled Grota River County, the Harland Territory and the Legendary Green Dragon were at peace with each other, and no conflicts erupted.
The location of the Canyon Castle was easy to defend and difficult to attack, with camps built on the mountain beams on both sides of the north, which could support each other with the castle on the front of the canyon. The castle was completely a military fortress, and there were hardly any people in the vicinity other than the garrison.
“Attention, the orcs are coming up, quickly light the wolf smoke, string your bows, help each other put on your armor, we only have about ten minutes.”
The fortifications in the northern part of Fort Canyon extended about thirty miles farther north, and brick sentry towers were constructed every ten miles, inside of which wolf smoke could be lit at any time.
The sentinel towers were built on the beams of the hills and had excellent sight lines, allowing the enemy to be watched from a great distance. The large trees around them had also been cut down, and a trench had been constructed in the rear, through which it was possible to descend the mountain very quickly.
A small military station was built at the bottom of the hill, in which a dozen or so war horses were hoarded, allowing the defenders to quickly retreat to the rear.
Along the canyon fort extending northward, two dozen sentry towers, large and small, were erected in the northern part of several valleys.
These sentry towers were stationed with dozens of scouts depending on the terrain, more than a few scouts, less than a few soldiers, and the scout cavalry stationed in the sentry towers totaled more than three hundred regulars.
It was by relying on these frontline scouts that the enemy situation north of Fort Canyon could be mapped out.
From the discovery of the Hawkman, the Fort Canyon defenders had begun a full mobilization, ready to enter a state of war at any time.
On the third day after the Hawkman appeared, the orc army appeared in the northern part of Fort Hyrule.
The orc vanguard brigade brandished disorganized weapons and let out a majestic cry. The orc brigade leader was rather savage, probably relying on his experience from three years ago, and did not scout carefully before launching a siege.
This orc brigade had a total of about two thousand soldiers, and the two thousand orcs were divided into seven or eight races. Swarming in a chaotic manner, they began to storm the defense line established by the defenders of Fort Canyon.
The valley in front of Fort Canyon was only a hundred meters wide, and the two thousand orcs swarmed in and immediately became chaotic.
The soldiers on the walls of Fort Canyon seized the opportunity, and the bows and crossbows in their hands continuously shot out crossbows and arrows.
The arrows seemed like flying locusts, constantly shooting through the shields and leather armor of the orcs, and for a while there were mournful screams coming from the canyon. The rabble in the orc force had begun to collapse.
Seeing that the situation was unfavorable, the orc brigadier immediately drew in his elites, and the serpentine human heavy infantry quickly went into battle, wanting to climb the walls and break through the defenses in one fell swoop.
As a result, the defenders had already set traps, and when the serpent-bodied men appeared on the battlefield, they immediately threw dozens of alchemy bombs.
After a gust of smoke, the city wall had already shot out bed crossbows, officers also used enchanted bows and crossbows, aimed at the serpent people to greet, in a moment the serpent people’s loss has been more than half.
Seeing that the snake-bodied people were about to be wiped out, the orc captain hurriedly urged the eagle-bodied people to launch a surprise attack and cooperate with the snake-bodied people.
As a result, two hot air balloons rose from inside the castle.
On top of the hot air balloons were third-order divine archers, also equipped with burst arrows, the eagle-bodied people were not paying attention for a moment, but three of them were hit by the burst arrows and blew up into pieces in the air.
Seeing this scene, the eagle-bodied people were too scared to come forward.
Without the cooperation of the eagle people, the snake people were soon surrounded and annihilated by the defenders.
The main backbone suffered heavy losses, and the orcs could not bear the casualties at once and wanted to withdraw from the battle line.
Seeing the orcs retreating, the stone throwers on the city wall fired one after another, this area had already been marked in advance with a shooting table, countless stone bombs fell into the middle of the retreating orcs. The defenders in the barracks on both sides also shot arrows from the heights, the orc brigade was surrounded on three sides, they simply couldn’t hold out for too long, and were soon wiped out.
(End of chapter)