Standing on the high watchtower of the Holy Acropolis, the adjutant said to Cumberland, who had just come up, "Look, my lord. ”

Cumberland took out the binoculars on his waist and looked at the slowly advancing enemy troops for a while, with a smile on his face: "Wheel war?"

The adjutant nodded and said, "That's right, the enemy plans to attack in three batches by virtue of the superiority in strength, and this time it should be the twelve kingdoms of the Middle Diocesan that are responsible for the attack." The number of enemy troops was about 3,000, and the direction of attack was the east gate. ”

"Tell the troops stationed at the east gate to carry out a minimum of bows and arrows and stone-throwing counterattacks, and that the alien soldiers are not allowed to use explosives for the time being. ”

The adjutant glanced at Cumberland: "My lord, even if the enemy is a tentative attack, such a counterattack is inevitably too weak......"

The latter snorted: "Go and give the order!"

Watching the adjutant walk down the watchtower, Cumberland propped his hands on the stake and looked at the battlefield quietly.

Soon, the secular kingdom coalition forces of the Middle Parish, after carefully avoiding horse rejections and traps, entered the firing circle at the east gate of the Holy Acropolis.

After walking forward for a while, the frightened coalition soldiers were suddenly surprised to find that the attack from above their heads did not seem to be as strong as they imagined.

The commander of the secular kingdom of the Middle Parish, after assessing the situation on the battlefield, gave the order to approach the walls carefully.

With the loose formation and the shield raised, the secular kingdom army of the central diocese finally approached the city wall, and only then did they find that the defenders' attack had strengthened a little, but it was still not as terrible as expected.

When the siege ladder was erected and the coalition soldiers climbed up the ladder and were only a few meters away from the city, the attack from the top of the city intensified again, and the coalition casualties suddenly increased.

At this time, the commander of the coalition forces of the secular kingdom of the Middle Diocese immediately gave the order to retreat.

This was the end of the first morning of the war.

The first tentative attack by the Church coalition yielded results that they had never even expected.

The troops in charge of the attack, on the premise of not suffering many casualties, actually passed through the firing circle of the city and almost climbed the city wall.

At the military meeting at lunchtime, more than a dozen commanders of the Church Coalition Army got together, and after a heated discussion, it was finally decided to be careful, after all, the commander of the defenders was the famous Cumberland in the history of Silver Ring City who had resisted the barbarian army for thirty years.

On the afternoon of the first day of the war, the tactics of wheel warfare continued.

The second group of attacking troops became the sixteen kingdoms of the Eastern Diocese.

From two o'clock in the afternoon until the sun went down, the battle was no different from the morning.

The second group of coalition troops, also with minimal casualties, passed through the firing circle of the city and climbed the walls using siege ladders. Only this time their results were even better than in the morning, and one of the light infantry squads actually resisted the attack and climbed to the top of the city, although it only lasted for a few dozen seconds, and was driven down again. But this phase of success has greatly boosted the morale of the entire coalition army.

At the end of the day's fighting, the number of dead and wounded was counted on both sides, and the Church coalition was about 400 killed and wounded, and the defenders of the Holy Acropolis were about 160 killed and wounded.

In the evening, Cumberland sat by the brazier of the city wall, eating baked wheat cakes brought by his subordinates, drinking sweet well water, and touching his chin and looking into the distance.

Mary stood beside him, listened intently to the sound of the night wind, and whispered, "There seems to be singing and cheering from the direction of the enemy camp. ”

Cumberland said nonchalantly, "Of course. After paying such a small casualty, to be able to achieve such a big result, it would be celebrated by any unit. ”

Mary looked around: "Are you sure it's okay now?" The soldiers of the Holy Acropolis are talking about today's battle, and some people say that this castle will not last long in front of the army. ”

Cumberland finished eating the wheat cake in his hand and said to Mary: "If Your Majesty sees the battle today, I guess he will understand what I want to do." ”

The latter frowned and said, "I'm not Your Majesty, but you can explain it to me." ”

Cumberland shook his head: "The matter of the war is too troublesome to explain. Let's put it this way, wait until tomorrow, the enemy will abandon the tactics of wheel warfare and launch a full-scale general offensive. ”

"All-out attack, are you sure?"

"You can think about it, winter is coming, and the enemy must want to end this war as soon as possible, but the solid walls of the Holy Acropolis have forced them to choose the most stable wheel war. But with today's results, these people will definitely think that the defenders of the Holy Acropolis are nothing more than that, and maybe they will also think that the Dusk Knights and the Holy Guard are at odds, which has caused today's poor defense. ”

Cumberland poured a mouthful of water: "So, if I were the commander of the coalition forces, I would take advantage of the high morale and launch a total in one go to completely capture the Holy Acropolis." ”

Mary asked suspiciously, "Why do I listen to your tone as if I really want to see the enemy attack?

"Winning a war doesn't mean winning, you also need to look at the meaning of the war in the context of the situation. Cumberland stroked his beard and said, "Your Majesty is launching a religious reformation against the Church, not the secular kingdoms. The real significance of this battle was to kill and injure the living forces of the Church's immediate armies and to stir up tensions between the secular kingdom and the Church to the greatest extent. ”

Mary asked, incredulously, "What can be done in a battle?"

Cumberland smiled and nodded, "You'll find out tomorrow." ”

Battle of the Holy Acropolis, Day II.

Cumberland and Mary climbed to the top of the city and looked at the enemy camp opposite.

As Cumberland had said last night, the Church coalition was dispatched, and the army of 10,000 men divided into three phalanxes and marched slowly towards the Holy Acropolis.

The enemy troops all over the hills, the neat drums and paces, made Mary's face a little pale, and she whispered: "The enemy has really launched a general attack. ”

Compared with the queen, Cumberland rubbed his hands excitedly: "Take a closer look, who is the main force of the enemy's general attack this time?"

Hearing Cumberland's words, Mary took a stride and looked intently at the battlefield.

The three grouping phalanxes of the enemy, the position of the formations were completely different from the first day.

The Church's direct armies—the Knights of Stigmata, the Baptist Order, and the Faithful Order—rushed to the forefront, leaving the two phalanxes of the secular kingdom behind.

Mary covered her mouth and said in surprise, "...... this?"

Cumberland put his helmet on and said with a laugh, "When launching a general attack, the commander usually puts the strongest army at the front of the formation to break through the enemy's line as quickly as possible, and yesterday, the two secular kingdom phalanxes each launched an attack. Therefore, I conclude that the main attack force today will definitely be in charge of the troops directly under the Church. ”

Mary recalled Cumberland's words yesterday, and suddenly realized: "Could it be that the reason why you did that yesterday was to ......?"

Cumberland drew his weapon, strode to the front line, and said in a deep voice: "That's right, just to lure out this group of wild dogs hiding behind the rabbits!"

Cumberland, who walked up to the command platform, shouted to the adjutant: "Tell the wolf cubs below that they watched the show for a day yesterday, and they can put out the fire today!

The adjutant straightened up, saluted, turned over, rolled up his sleeves, and shouted, "Commander, order!

Cumberland stuck his long sword on the wooden board in front of him, and looked coldly at the enemy troops on the battlefield, and the beehive on the keel armor vibrated violently, sending out infrasound waves that could not be heard by human ears, and instantly spread throughout the entire city wall.

Soon, one hive parasite after another on the battlefield began to vibrate, and one command after another was passed down layer by layer.

On the other hand, after entering the shooting circle of the Holy Acropolis, the Church Coalition found that the enemy's counterattack was as weak as yesterday, and the commander-in-chief of the coalition forces, who was sluggish, gave the order for the whole army to assault.

More than 4,000 people from the direct forces of the Church gave up their shields and swarmed towards the walls of the Holy Acropolis in a dense charging formation.

Soon, the counterattack that was originally like a gentle drizzle suddenly turned into stormy waves.

A rain of arrows like locusts rained down from the city, obscuring the sun's rays, and a hail of stones was thrown out of the city, and the sound of whirring cracks in the air was heartbreaking. The troops directly under the church who were in charge of fighting the front were devastating at the first moment due to their overly tight formation and lax sense of defense.

The fragile flesh of human beings, in front of metal arrows and hard stones, is like an egg that shatters at the touch of a finger, and dies one after another.

The screams of the soldiers and the neighing of the horses immediately spread throughout the battlefield, and the nearly 1,000 soldiers of the Church Army were like wheat in autumn, being harvested one after another.

In just one minute, the troop was attrition by nearly a quarter. The commander-in-chief of the coalition forces was frightened by this sudden attack, and lost his mind for a moment, but soon, knowing that something was wrong, he knew that there was no chance to retreat at this time, so he could only continue to charge.

The allied commander ordered his men to blow the holy horn given by the Pope, the Knights of Stigmata and the Knights of the Baptist Church each raised the Legion Cross, and the Faithful led by the Commander sang the hymn loudly, and the remnants of the troops, driven by religious consciousness, launched an almost suicidal charge towards the nearby wall.

The siege ladders were erected, the hooks were thrown onto the walls, and the Church troops began to climb the walls, seeing that the soldiers were about to climb the walls because they were in a dead end.

But the next scene made all the coalition soldiers deeply understand what hell is.

Dozens of bags of explosives, emitting white smoke, were thrown off the city walls.

After a dazzling white light and a violent explosion, the middle of the Acropolis was left with a blood-colored crater and human stumps and fragments of weapons scattered all over the walls.

The coalition offensive was again interrupted, but after a short pause, the commander of the coalition forces of the Church sounded the holy horn again.

The Church troops, led by their respective battle leaders, began to disperse to climb the wall, and used large shields to form a tortoiseshell formation to protect the siege ladder.

Seeing this scene, Cumberland frowned and said, "The church still knows about the explosives after all. ”

The climbing church soldiers plugged their ears with cloth balls, ignored the explosive packets that exploded not far away, and began to crawl towards the city with all their might.

A sergeant major of the Stigmata Knights, climbing the walls of the Holy Acropolis, looked at a heavy infantry of the Knights of the Twilight West in front of him, raised his shield in front of him, and stabbed the spear in his hand into the throat of the opponent.

The sound of metal clashing made the sergeant major stunned.

The skin at the throat of the hoplite suddenly turned into silvery metal, firmly blocking the onslaught of the spears.

Stunned, the sergeant major took a step back, dodging the heavy infantry's flail in embarrassment, and then chose the landing point of the attack on the opponent's thigh.

The sergeant's spear stabbed out with all its might, and the tip of the spear pierced through the metal of the thighs of the heavy infantry of the Knights of the Dusk, piercing the muscles about five centimeters.

Something happened to the sergeant major, after pulling out the spear with great difficulty, there was only a little blood stain on the opponent's thigh, and the wound actually healed instantly in a few seconds!

"My God!" the sergeant major fell into an ice cellar, completely stupid.

A crossbow bolt, in the next second, pierced his skull through the crack in his helmet, sending his questions and exclamations into eternal sleep.

Dressed in a grass-green cover, the Sniper Inheritor lies in the moss of the watchtower of the wall, loads another bolt at the ballista, and begins to use the Eagle Eye ability to find his next target.

Another group of fanatical soldiers of the Cult Corps rushed up the walls, and before they could gain a foothold, two large shield hoplites, escorting a female elemental inheritor in light armor, slowly approached them.

The Zealot raised his weapon and rushed towards the three men of the Knights of the Twilight West.

I saw that the elemental inheritor stretched out his hands forward, and from the gap between the two large shields, a red flame ten meters away erupted from his palm.

The soldiers of the Believers Regiment were instantly surrounded by the flames amid the screams, and more than a dozen believers fell off the city wall with fire all over their bodies.

Cumberland watched everything on the battlefield, watching the Church's direct forces being suppressed by the Knights of the Dusk, and gradually showing signs of collapse.

As for the phalanxes of those secular kingdoms, after seeing the dense shooting, explosives bombardment, and xenomorph warriors, they had completely lost the fighting spirit to attack and began to gradually withdraw towards the rear of the war.

"It's almost time. Cumberland twisted his neck, looked down at the three hundred xenomorph knights in full gear inside the city gate, and shouted: "Open the city gate, get on the horse, raise your gun, and prepare to charge!"