On the afternoon of the third Friday in July, the sky was cloudy and heavy rain was about to fall.

On the border between the province of Jonah and the city of Besançon, on a gentle slope fifteen miles from the city of Vaal, a makeshift military camp rises from the ground.

Trenches and horse traps were dug around the barracks, and stakes and horse-barring fences were inserted, and there was a camp gate on the west and north sides, and the camp gate was guarded by a small group of soldiers at each of the camp gates; Thirty or forty military tents of different sizes in the battalion are neatly arranged according to the military system, and there is a one-person wide spacing between each military tent, most of the soldiers are snoring like thunder in the tents, and a flag team on duty on guard is wearing armor and holding an armed small team to shuttle and patrol the camp as a unit; The military law team wearing white feather half-helmets also cruised in the camp in pairs with short swords on their shoulders to prevent civil unrest among the soldiers; Inside the barracks, the baggage team is distributing today's military rations to the baggage soldiers of each flag team, and then the baggage soldiers of each flag team will make food and distribute it to the flag team soldiers; Within half a mile of the barracks, four squads of gōng nǔ men were ambushing in the grass, treetops, and mountainside boulders on the roadside, and the gōng nǔ team was on duty today as the wài wéi guard of the barracks.

In the middle of the barracks, the commander of the flag captain of the Wells Regiment and above gathered in the military meeting.

Angus, the adjutant of the Wells Regiment and the frontier leader, was pointing in front of a patchwork parchment topographic map tiled on improvised wooden boards in the center of the tent, and all the officers in the tent were carefully surrounding the topographic map and listened to him introduce the battlefield military information {the battlefield military intelligence is different from the intelligence network, and the field military information is in charge of the adjutant Angus, and the cavalry team is mainly scouting and sentry, which is small in scope but effective}.

"Located on the southern mountainous edge of the province of Jonah and the critical line between Besançon, Vaal is a hillside flat castle and the gateway to the King's Road in the province of Jonah. Morality? Baron Colville led an army to garrison. ”

"The 1st Regiment of the Jonah Regiment consisted of 450 men, including 300 infantry, 50 cavalry, and 100 gōng nǔ hands, plus nearly 100 people who were conscripted and sent to the army. Although the 1st Regiment of the Jonah Regiment was quite numerous, it was not very powerful, not only because of their hasty and lack of training, but also because their weapons and armor were very rudimentary, and their infantry armament was similar to that of our patrol team. ”

On the other hand, the western army besieging Vaal City had four infantry regiments of about 1,400 men, which was not a large scale at first glance, after all, it was not advantageous for the enemy to conquer the fortified city by three times. However, the three infantry regiments that were the main forces of the siege were not ordinary. ”

"The main attacking force is two palace guard infantry regiments and a mixed infantry and cavalry formation of the Western Frontier Army, and these people are the elite of the Western Army. In addition, there are about 300 conscripted peasant soldiers in the western border, who are specially used as auxiliaries. ”

The tent was in an uproar, the officers of the Welsh Legion had seen the formidable fighting power of the Janissary Legion in the national war between Provence and the Duchy of Lombardy, and the commander of the Eastern Legion at that time, Viscount Geoffrey, relied on the palace guard that had led south from Besançon, and in fact that team did play a huge role in the battle.

Due to the defection of the military minister of the palace, the Praetorian Guard Legion, which could have been largely on the side of the Eastern Army, became the main force of the Western Army, which also increased the pressure on the Eastern Frontier faction.

Normally, it is almost impossible for more than a thousand ordinary troops to capture the castle fortress defended by four or five hundred garrisons, but it is not impossible for the palace janissary legion, they have sophisticated weapons and armor and strong combat effectiveness, and the command of the Praetorian Legion is a group of leading soldiers, these people may not have enough actual combat experience, but they have received systematic military training since childhood, and their command ability is definitely stronger than the half-baked commander of the Wells legion.

"Judging from the information that Jafar had learned from his sentry in Vaal this afternoon and from the torture of the tongues of the captured enemy, the enemy had begun the fifth siege, and they must have guessed the size of the reinforcements through our cavalry blocking the battlefield, and this time the siege was more intense than the previous ones. The cavalry team could not get close to Vaal City, so it was not possible to find out the casualties of the defenders for the time being, but it was estimated that the battle damage was not small. ”

"Is there enough food in the Vaal City?" Art interjected.

"The defenders have been stockpiling food supplies in the city for a year, and it should be fine."

Art nodded, motioning for Angus to continue.

"At present, Lusignan and Jafar are leading their cavalry to shield the battlefield within three miles of the front of the legion, and the enemy sentinels have not been able to get close. However, the enemy should have discovered the whereabouts of reinforcements, and it is not surprising that they will send troops to intercept us in the next two days. ”

"My lord, everyone, the above is the battlefield military situation." Angus looked around after speaking, and everyone handed a long, thin wooden stick in their hands to Art.

Art took the stick and came to the parchment topographic map laid out on the wooden board, which had taken a lot of his energy, collected by the Eagle Eye of the Northland, proofread by Art, and drawn by Cooper, the builder, and the men who commanded the camp, during which the hills, dense forests, roads, rivers, and castles and fortresses were all very complete, and there were even simple legends; From the map, the Northland border area, which was the main battlefield of the first phase of the Successor War, was mostly low mountains and hills that crisscrossed from east to west, and the castle fortresses and county settlements on the border were distributed in a narrow basin between the mountains.

The parchment map was decorated with small wooden blocks of black and white, representing the eastern and western armies, with various shapes representing different types of troops, with squares representing infantry, circles representing gōng nǔ hands, and triangles representing cavalry, each representing a standard formation of troops. For example, a small black square represents an infantry company of about 260 men in the Western Army, a white triangle represents a cavalry unit of the Eastern Army with 50 cavalry (including cavalry members), and a dozen small wooden blocks with a wolf's head pattern represent the various teams of the Welsh Legion.

Such a map sand table should be regarded as the world's most sophisticated top work.

According to the topographical map, the black and white blocks of wood are facing each other on both sides of the long border between the province of Jonah and Besançon, and the city of Vaal, which the Welsh Legion is about to rescue, is currently the only battlefield in a state of engagement.

"Ron, you're the guard officer, and you're collecting information outside the battlefield, so tell everyone about the situation outside Vaal City." Art said as he handed the stick to Ron's hand.

Ron coughed lightly and said, "Master, commanders, the task force disguised as free mercenaries should have lurked in the enemy camp, and they will collect and pass back the military information of the main teams of the enemy army. ”

"However, the time is too tight, and the task force has not yet sent back the specific army assembly and deployment and mobilization of the rear of the Western Army, and we have collected a lot of enemy movements through the Northland Eagle Eye, please take a look." Ron pointed with his stick at the small wooden block of the map that had been placed in advance along the border.

"By the beginning of July, more than 4,800 troops had been assembled on the entire border front, including about 2,800 troops from the west and about 2,000 from the east. According to Hawkeye's report, although there are many enemy troops assembled on the border, most of them are conscripted peasants, and less than half of the legion's professional soldiers are soldiers. Nearly half of the elite professional soldiers were concentrated in the siege of Vaal City. From the rough information we have obtained, the enemy's focus should be on the southern front, with Vaal as the gateway, and they may want to occupy the King's Road and advance eastward. ”

"However, although the enemy's main battle force is in the south, there are also three infantry regiments of the Western Frontier Army and one palace guard cavalry regiment in the north, and the western army in the north is confronted by the 1st Eastern Army under the leadership of Baron Challis himself {Eastern Main Battle Legion} and several temporary conscripted private legions of the lords of Jonah Province. Earl Balwyn was afraid that the enemy had a conspiracy, so he did not dare to rashly transfer the confrontational army from the north to the south to support, so he urgently ordered the Welsh army to rush to the aid of Vaal City. ”

"Outside the border front, the private troops of the lords of the western province of Saône have been regrouped, and 1,200 men have begun to assemble from all parts of the province of Saône, and at the beginning of the month, 1,000 western troops were transferred to the border of the province of Kodor in the south of the province of Saône to guard against the Longxia Corps."

Ron deliberately lowered his tone, "On the friendly side, according to the secret information transmitted by the Jonah court, Flender, the Earl of Longxia, has led a thousand elite Longxia legions and five hundred servant soldiers to detour through the Duchy of Burgundy, preparing to lead troops south from the north to raid Besançon, which is only guarded by hundreds of powerful private soldiers, but the current movement of the Midsummer legion is unknown, and the Jona court estimates that they are about to arrive in the north of Besançon." This top-secret military information is not allowed to be disseminated. ”

Ron put the stick down and signaled for the end of the lecture.

"Odo, the army has been marching for half a month in a row, how is the combat strength? Will the soldier be able to jump into battle right away? Art asked Otto, the adjutant beside him.

Otto put down his hands around his chest, stared at the map sand table in front of him, and said: "The army's fighting spirit is still very high, but since the beginning of July to now, the army has been marching for more than ten days, and it was originally planned to go to the battlefield after the city of Jonah was repaired, but now our repair has been canceled with a paper order, I am afraid that the soldiers' physical strength is seriously depleted, and not only people, but also the horses and livestock that accompany the army also need to rest and adjust, my suggestion is to repair outside the battlefield for a day or two to recover their strength before continuing to advance and fight." ”

"However, the time left for us to fight is also very short, and the military rations carried by the army are only enough for three days, plus the soldiers carry two days of emergency military rations, and we can stay in the war zone for five days at most."

Otto's brows were furrowed, originally according to the deployment of Jonah's court, the place where the Wells legion was stationed was in a county fortress called St. Ryan near Bomledham in the north, so Angus took the baggage team to temporarily store dozens of truckloads of military rations in a manor around the city of St. Rion, and then moved St. Ryan after the army entered the county town.

Now the commander-in-chief of the Eastern Army, Earl Balwin, has transferred them to the south, and it is only temporary, and the baggage team is also inconvenient, and it is easy to be beaten if there are fewer people, and the target is too big if there are too many people; The most troublesome thing is that the grain in the villages near the barracks has long been requisitioned, and many local farmers have also evacuated to the east before the war......

The officers in the tent whispered that the most worrying thing about the march and war was the food problem.

Art knocked on the wooden plank in front of him to signal everyone to be quiet, "Since the food reserves of the army are insufficient, we must strive for a quick victory, and within two days, we must enter Vaal City or evacuate the war zone and assemble in the north to replenish the baggage." ”

"Now I begin to deploy the operations of the Wells Corps."

All the officers in the tent stood by solemnly.

Art picked up his stick and pointed to a few rows of small wooden blocks east of Vaal City, "This is where our current garrison is, fifteen miles west from here is the Vaal City battlefield, the enemy army should not have discovered our exact whereabouts for the time being, let's repair on the spot for a day, and tomorrow after lunch, the whole army will march towards Vaal City." ”

"Kazak, Tuba, you two banner soldiers hurry up and eat, and lead your troops from here after dark~" Art pointed the stick to a valley between two mountains leading to the rear of Vaal City, which the cavalry had already scouted, and that valley road would allow small troops to go around the rear of the enemy army.

"~ Go around to the rear of the enemy and hide well, I will personally lead most of the army to attack the enemy to attract the enemy's attention, once the enemy is contained, I will ignite three wolf smoke and give the order, you will immediately sneak attack the enemy from the rear and disrupt the enemy position."

"The enemy must have set up a sentry post on that valley pass, and you must quietly wipe out the sentry so that the enemy does not find out. As soon as the enemy discovers your whereabouts, retreat immediately. ”

"Yes!" Kazak and Tuba responded at the same time.

"Otto stays, and the rest go back to repair or prepare for the war."

Everyone in the tent saluted and left the tent of the Chinese command camp in Arte.

After everyone left, Art instructed Odo: "You still have to find a way to deal with the army's food baggage, if you can't do it, you can send the baggage troops of each flag team to form a grain collection team to the nearby requisition, and we will have a little more time for one more cart of food, and we can have an extra half of the chance of winning."

Odo was a little embarrassed, "My lord, not to mention that the grain that can be collected nearby has long been requisitioned by the armies of all parties, even if the remaining lords and farmers have some rations, they are afraid that they will not buy it for us......"

Art stopped Otto with a wave of his hand, "Otto, I mean "requisition", "levy" is the main thing, "buy" is supplementary, and the short sword issued by the waist of the baggage soldier is not used to peel apples. ”

"My lord, this, it's not good~"

"What's not good? I think it's very good, if our Vaal City falls and the enemy army pours in, I'm afraid these peasants will not be as simple as handing over a little ration. I think they should understand this truth, and if they don't understand, let the food team teach them well! ”

Otto nodded, "Yes!" I immediately asked the flag teams to draw their troops. ”

Art stopped Otto, who turned around and went out, and commanded softly, "Try not to kill civilians~"

Otto's brow furrowed a little, "Yes!" My lord, I see! ”