In the northwest of Obaro in November, there were rare days of dry cold, the dew on the plains turned to hoarfrost in the morning, the sun's rays were even dimmer, and the whole land was shrinking, under the distant clouds,

The high peaks have been covered with white first snow, and the damp woods are silent, as if the world is frozen at this moment,

A spotted finch in the forest chirped gently and timidly, and the light sandy fog already revealed signs that it might be facing a harsh winter. The war is approaching, and even the footsteps of the goddess of war can be heard clearly,

The sunlight has just been transmitted from the clouds, the milky white mist shrouded the earth, under the breeze blowing, the light mist slowly dissipated, gradually rising from the ground, and finally disappeared, the world suddenly became much more refreshing and clear.

On the flat meadows in the north of Normandy, the line of sight is very clear, you can see almost anywhere ten miles away, and on the edge of the connection between heaven and earth, you can faintly see the rolling clouds.

Scott, the commander of the Third Infantry Regiment of the Fifth Legion of the Empire, sat on his horse, his eyes shining at the vast wilderness that he was about to enter, and beside him, a group of Gallic light cavalry wearing the heraldic robes of the Fifth Legion of the Empire was riding his horse quickly.

Behind him, a group of infantry with imperial tower shields in their hands appeared, towering spears like cold light that suddenly appeared on the edge of the wilderness, at the front of the queue, there were gorgeous battle flags embroidered with golden tassels of the fifth legion, a lion and a spear, the queue marched in an orderly order, like a long black dragon spreading on the edge of this plain, under the cold wind, the banners in the sky were hunting and waving,

This was the vanguard of the withdrawal from the north-western region, and the 3rd Infantry Regiment was the first to arrive, bringing news that startled Hukochili, who had just been stationed at the border, about a hundred miles behind this vanguard group. It was an army of up to 150,000 men withdrawn from the North-West Slavic region. Among these people. There are only 50,000 real combatants, more of them are the families of the soldiers, the merchants accompanying the army, the smiths, and even the number of more than 20,000 slaves, the complexity of the personnel makes the queue seem very scattered, 150,000 people along the long retreat line, from north to south pulled out a long line of hundreds of miles,

According to the reports of the officers who went to deliver the order, the delivery of the order was not satisfactory. The order to abandon the Slavic regions and withdraw all of them to the country was tantamount to a request for the Fifth Army Corps, whose sphere of influence was mainly outside the borders, to completely abandon the one for which they had fought for a long time, and the commanders of the corps were very controversial about this, and held several meetings for several days before finally agreeing to carry it out by voting.

But even so, it caused quite a bit of turmoil.

The officers of the Julils family, who were in the majority, chose to carry out the order, while the minority officers of the non-Julils family threatened to withdraw and refused to carry out the order to retreat, demanding to remain in the station. Waiting for an official order from the Imperial side,

Out of consideration for the stability of the legion and the urgency of time, Xavier, the deputy commander of the legion, finally agreed to the request of these officers. Agreeing that these officers should remain in their place and serve as the rear of the Great Army, while bringing back the rest of the troops,

The army of Slavs, who had expected to follow him, did not appear. For the sudden transfer of the Fifth Army of the Reich, the Slavs have obviously not reacted yet,

"Your Majesty, there was some little accident in the plan!" Hu Keqili, who felt that something was wrong, immediately rushed to the fat man's official residence and reported the situation to the fat man, because he wanted to fully command the defense of the northern border, and the fat man's command point was less than fifty miles away from the fortress that had just been built on the northern border.

"How many people are left?" The fat man was reviewing a document, raised his head disappretently and asked, "There are still 35,000 people left in place, including 10,000 combat troops" Hu Keqili said with a solemn face, "10,000 people, it won't last long!" The fat man raised his eyebrows, closed the text in his hand, and said in a relaxed tone, "What the subordinates are worried about is that once these people who stay behind report this matter to the empire, they are afraid that the whole plan will be in danger of exposing their intentions in advance!"

"The Slavs didn't move because they haven't figured out the situation yet, in fact, I really expect them to report this to the Gallic Empire and withdraw the Fifth Legion, but the Gallic Empire's own order, you may also feel it."

"What does it mean?" Hu Keqili was stunned for a moment

"This year's winter is a difficult winter!" "The fat man's voice stopped, and he glanced meaningfully at the white sky outside the window, "The cold will make the Slavs move like wolves, and the report of the people left behind is tantamount to telling the Slavs who died and died in the cold on the opposite side, there is no army on the border of the rich Gallic Empire, if you are a hungry and panicked Slav, what will you do?" Hukochili looked suddenly, the Gallic Empire is really smart but was mistaken by cleverness, "That's right, we are the sword mountain and the sea of fire!" The fat man grinned slightly, "If the Slavs go south, we will bear the brunt, I think the Gallic Empire thinks the same, they want to sit on the mountain and watch the tiger fight, but unfortunately, they will regret the discovery very much! In fact, without crossing us, the Slavs can easily enter the hinterland of the Gallic Empire!" We were unscathed, and this is a great gift to the Gallic Empire, and they will not be lonely this winter!"

"That's indeed a sea of swords and fire!" Hearing the fat man's analogy, thinking of the solid defense of the northern border now, even a fierce general like Hu Keqili also sighed helplessly, he really couldn't figure it out, and he didn't know how Duo Ze, a guy who had never been to war in his life, came up with it, in just one month, the northern border had been built like an iron bucket, after a month of construction, Duo Xue pulled up a long wall barrier on the northern border with an average height of more than 5 meters according to the fat man's order, with this section of about 200 li, like a gate blocking the road from the north to the northwest region

Behind this long wall, the Falcon Kingdom's southern army of 40,000 people, the central army of 30,000 people, plus Salon's 30,000 people, a full 100,000 elite army, built a three-layer defense line inside and outside.

Inside the long wall, there is a flat area where the army is stationed. All kinds of defense materials are piled up, and outside the long wall, there are three dry moats built according to the undulating hilly terrain, which are several meters deep.

All three moats were more than 5 meters wide and filled with inverted spikes. The front one is 100 meters away from the city wall, mainly used to restrict the movement of the opponent's large infantry groups and large siege equipment, if the opponent wants to attack the city, it must fill in the moat with the fierce catapults of the Falcon Army, and the second moat is set at a position of 50 meters. That's where the crossbow shooter can shoot through the opposing heavily armored unit, the last of which is less than two meters from the wall.

This is the real killer feature.

Because of the support of crude oil, once the opponent desperately breaks through the two defensive lines in front of him and the army approaches the city wall, the defenders will pour the crude oil from the city wall and ignite it with fire, even if the opponent is cast with iron and steel, it will be burned to the ground. However, the archers on the city wall can easily kill the enemies in the fire circle one by one, and the opponent can only stare dryly, this feeling of helplessness is enough to make any enemy feel shocked. If necessary, you can even use crude oil bombs to directly destroy the large siege equipment that the opponent has worked so hard to push under the city

"It's just impossible to predict the number of Slavs this time, and my subordinates are afraid that they will ...... when the time comes" Hukochili was cautious, and hesitated to say whether he should transfer Crolysat's Western Legion as well

A cold glint flashed in the fat man's eyes. He pursed his lips slightly, this was the second time that Hukochili had asked for a battle for the Western Legion! He deliberately pretended not to hear what he meant, and said, "Could it be that you Hukochili will also be timid?" "No. It's just that his subordinates have never fought with the Slavs, and every aspect of the other party's subordinates is unknown" Hukochili hurriedly lowered his head with an embarrassed face and said, "The big battle is imminent, and if you can understand the enemy more, you will have a better chance of winning!" And when it comes to wilderness operations, the mobility of the Western Legion is a huge advantage."

"What you said is indeed a problem" The fat man nodded noncommittally, and said, "The situation of the Slavs that I learned from Fort Julilsford is roughly like this, the army equipment of the Slavs is generally still in the initial stage of light leather armor, the main weapons of infantry equipment are single-handled battle axes, throwing spears, small round shields, mainly infantry during the battle, mixed with light cavalry similar to safaris, the queue is scattered, like to rush up, if the battle is unfavorable, morale will be low, and there will be a large number of escapes,

"Actually, I'm thinking about whether it's more appropriate to take the initiative to attack!" the fat man's voice stopped, and he touched his nose, "Julilsfort once told me with a smile that several times, he was forced to a desperate situation by the Slavs' coalition army, that is, taking advantage of the characteristics of the Slavs who did not dare to fight to the death, using the strict assault army formation of the Imperial Army, in the scattered large army of the Slavs, first solve the Slavs' middle army, and then expand to the two wings, and finally cause the Slavic army to be completely shaken, and win more with less!" So, the Slavs are afraid of the tactics of breaking through in the middle?" Hukochili showed a knowing expression, "It should be so!" The fat man picked up the scroll on the table and flipped through it, as if to confirm something, rubbed his temples, and sighed, "Tactical matters, you can go and learn about the withdrawn Fifth Legion, they have been fighting against the Slavs for more than ten years, let's still think about the current problem, there are more than 150,000 mouths to eat, and the food in Normandy should be tight again,

A month ago, I asked the Admiralty to suspend commercial and trade transportation, and instead send all the transport ships to transport grain, and at the current amount of stockpiling, we can probably sustain it until January next year.

But if you transfer troops from the Western Legion, food will be a big problem! I know that several of you are complaining about the cold reception that Crorissa is currently suffering, but it is not that the Western Legion will not participate in the war, but that their time for war has not yet come!"

"I see, it's a subordinate who is too reckless!" Hukochili's head is full of beads of sweat, as a friend of Crorysat, the current situation of Crolysat's Western Army is indeed worrying, the original Falcon First Army, completely abandoned in the mountains of Dorok, it is a pity, several wars have not participated, has caused a lot of speculation in the imperial military circles, the five big guys as the old ministers of the imperial military circles, all honored, all humiliated!

There have been too many examples of fat people's crow's beaks being very effective,

With the withdrawal of the main force of the Fifth Army Corps, the empty garrison of the Fifth Army Corps soon attracted the attention of the Slavs on the opposite side, the long wall project that was originally under construction was stopped, the number of sentinels was insufficient, many guard towers and control points were abandoned, and the more than 30,000 people who remained behind had no problems inside. As expected, they reported the withdrawal of the main force to the Imperial Military Affairs Department, and requested the Military Affairs Department to reinforce immediately, but before their people could be sent, a messenger from the Emperor Xià arrived, and the order brought made everyone's hearts fall directly into the ice cave,

Withdrawing turned out to be the order of His Majesty the Emperor!

The more than 30,000 people who remained panicked, and during this time, more and more Slavs gathered on the periphery. Some small groups of enemies began to grow more and more bold, and finally, in the bitter cold of November, the Slavs moved,

"Enemy attack!"

The warning of the forward scouts of the Gallic Empire turned into screams in the next second. An earthen throwing gun pierced his warm chest accurately. Guns continued to rain down, and screams rang out one after another in the patrol. "Attention, the Slavs are coming!" The soldiers of the Fifth Legion who were attacked quickly gathered together and formed a circular defensive circle, and the shieldbearers with swords in one hand and shields in the other automatically stood on the outermost periphery, and dozens of square-shaped imperial tower shields automatically formed a phalanx. Half-crouched archers, shoot arrows from the top of their shields into the depths of the jungle. The throwing guns overturned like a torrential rain, and even with the protection of the phalanx, the soldiers in the inner circle kept falling.

Watching the soldiers fall one by one, the captain's eyes were red, and in front of the previous imperial armies, these Slavic natives ran faster than rabbits. But in less than a dozen days, it has already developed from a bold peep to an attack, and he roared angrily in the phalanx, "Quick." Rush up and get those rabbit cubs out of the dark arrows that hurt people!"

More than thirty soldiers armed with imperial swords roared and charged behind the dense bushes. They used to be hoplites, but because the weather was too cold and the logistics were almost cut off, these soldiers became light infantry, which did not change their fierce style. Three soldiers were shot and fell to the ground during the impact, but the rest bravely rushed into the dense forest where the guns were fired

The Slavs in the dense forest resisted equally resolutely, they bravely fought with rudimentary javelins and sharp swords, in the cold northern jungle mud, people on both sides continued to splash blood, screams, fall to the ground, no one on either side retreated, the arm was cut off with a knife and then changed to a sword, the shoulder was broken by a wooden stick and gritted his teeth and pounced as usual, and another person's leg was broken, rolling on the muddy ground and continuing to swing his weapon to cut the enemy's leg.

This squad-level encounter quickly attracted other troops on both sides, "Archers, get there!"

The Imperial archers replied with a bang, began to draw their bows and strings, and were about to step forward.

With a roar of "wow", hundreds of Slavs poured out of the dense forest on all sides, holding javelins and wooden sticks, fiercely surround and kill, and the more than 30 Gallic Empire soldiers who left the queue ran back desperately, but were surrounded by hundreds of Slavs with wooden sticks roaring,

"Ah" screams were frequent, everywhere was the light and shadow of wielding weapons, it was difficult to move an inch, one by one was beaten to the point of flesh and blood, brains bursting, and the screams sounded intensively.

"Rush forward!" The Gallic soldiers of the brigade also struggled to meet them, but were desperately blocked by hundreds of Slavs, and the two sides fought fiercely, and every second someone fell with blood.

"Onward, for the Empire!"

They were less than thirty meters away from the besieged soldiers, and the two sides could see each other shouting, but they couldn't get closer, and it seemed that they couldn't wait for the brigade to come over to respond, and those soldiers were about to lose all their casualties!

"Rush up!" On the other side of the dense forest, reinforcements came and thousands of Gallic Imperial soldiers rushed out in dense clusters, and this chaotic situation made the brains of the commanders on both sides "boom" in the ambush!"

More and more troops were drawn into this sudden outbreak of the vortex, and the hundred-man squad-level conflict eventually turned into a battle of thousands.

This unexpected war was ignited in this way, and the commanders of the remaining troops were completely stunned, and the Slavs opposite them were also stunned, and they were terrified of what Julilsfort had beaten, and no one knew whether this was a trap or not, and the commanders of the remaining troops naturally thought that this was a general attack by the Slavs

"For the glory of the Empire, we must fight to the death!" shouted the officer at an emergency meeting

"The Empire's order is to retreat, do you want everyone to die here?" said someone angrily

"Even if you want to leave, you have to repel this attack!"

All kinds of voices made the whole meeting like a farce, the reinforcements were delayed, and the troops in front of them were finally overwhelmed and all collapsed.

This time the Slavs understood that the butcher of Fort Julilsford was not there, and the main force of the Fifth Army was not there, otherwise this would never have happened.

"Kill, kill the Gauls!" the Slavs brandished their weapons and rushed towards the Fifth Legion's defenses, and the crowd was rolling,

In the dense forest, where the fierce battle had just begun, the sound of fighting disappeared at once, and the dense forest of late autumn became silent again, so quiet that you could hear the chirping of birds, the ticking of rain dripping from the trees, and the soft moaning of the wounded lying on the ground.

The pale sunlight of the late autumn afternoon flowed feebly through the leaves into the dense forest, speckled on the green moss, on the pools of stagnant water, on the young and pale faces of the war dead. (To be continued......)