Ulster Free Federation, north-western frontier.

The battlefield should give people the impression of yellow sand and cold wind, but when the flying transport ship slowly descends, the world outside the porthole is an endless and green prairie.

It has a beautiful and romantic name, Nasha Prairie.

The steppes cover an area of nearly 200,000 square kilometres, most of which is part of the federal state of Neuchâtel of the Free Federation of Ulster, and a small part of which belongs to a small northern state called Hiriussen. To the north of the steppe is the kingdom of Wessex, which has existed for more than 1,600 years and spans the northern continent and the northern polar regions.

Despite the great differences in state systems and democratic forms, the comradeship between the Ulster Free Confederation and the Kingdom of Wessex has continued from the war-torn era. Every year, the federal side invites the northern allies to participate in the spring and winter exercises. In the years just after the end of the war, the Kingdom of Wessex regarded it as an important opportunity to train its troops and maintain cooperation, and often sent one-third of its active troops to join the exercise, but after the abdication of the old king Meslin IV and the new king Longus II ascended the throne, Wessex began to seek expansion, which was contrary to the international concept of peace, mutual trust, coexistence and mutual assistance advocated by the Ulster Free Federation, and diplomatic contradictions occurred from time to time, and the close relationship between the two countries was weakened. Even so, the Wessex Royal Defense Force still participates in the Ulster Free Federal Army's drill every year - in the past two years, there are still 20 or 30 flying warships, 8,900 marines, and 100 military observers from various fields.

All of the above was what Weiss and his companions had said after they had landed on camp and listened to the little fat Dior.

This third-year student, who provided free explanation services to the second-year students, naturally became the commander of the provisional 3rd Infantry Battalion of the Gaston Student Regiment, and was unanimously supported by all members.

After taking office, in addition to organizing the whole camp to practice, Chubby Dior spent most of his time popularizing various knowledge related to conference drills to the students. In addition to the rules and precautions for the exercise, what he described the most was the First Army Corps, which served as the ground force of the attacking side.

The military system of the Ulster Free Federal Army is a company, battalion, regiment, division, corps, and corps from small to large, with the lowest establishment unit being the company and the largest being the corps. Due to actual combat needs, the company can be temporarily divided into detachments and squads, and a campaign headquarters can be formed on top of the corps.

The standing force of the First Army Corps is five combat corps, namely the First Corps, known as the "Champion", the Fourth Corps, known as the "Iron Fist", the Fifth Corps, known as the "Sharp Blade", the Ninth Corps, known as the "Agni", and the Eleventh Corps, known as the "Lion". These titles are not awarded by the units themselves, but are honors fought for with countless blood and lives on the battlefield.

The regular corps of the Federal Army is divided into three levels, namely the Combat Corps, the Garrison Corps, and the Reserve Corps. The combat corps is a front-line unit on active duty, the conventional configuration is 3 infantry divisions and 1 artillery division, and the supply of baggage and artillery towing mainly rely on animal power, while the departments of the first army corps adopt the new configuration of the 3 motorized infantry divisions and 1 air defense artillery division, and the motorized infantry division and the air defense artillery division both use a large number of trucks, supplemented by a certain number of mules and horses, with faster maneuvering speed and stronger supply capacity, even if they are fighting without the cover of the flying troops, they can also resist the attack of the enemy's flying warships of a certain intensity. It will not be like in the last war, once you unilaterally encounter the enemy's flying warships, even if the enemy only has three or two cruisers, you will be beaten to the ground.

The prelude to the conference exercise is about to begin, and all units of the whole army are gathering one after another, and the First Fleet and the First Army Corps, which have played the role of villains all the year round, have already been in place. It's their defensive zone, it's their home turf, and no one knows everything better than them, so it's no surprise that they can still get ahead of the game every time they play more and less.

Just two days before the exercise began, Nikolai brought Weiss a rather surprising news: the Ulster Free Federal Government had given a security briefing to various countries as usual during the spring exercise, but for some reason, the Norman Empire had uncharacteristically offered to send a military observation group to observe it, and in exchange, they invited the Ulster Free Federation to send a military observation group of the same size to observe the "Summer-Thunderstorm" multi-service joint live-fire exercise to be held two months later.

Probably for political and diplomatic reasons, after a short period of consultations, the federal top brass accepted the proposal of the Norman Empire to allow it to send a military observer mission of no more than 40 people to the exercise area on the border to transfer military transport ships provided by the federal side, and accept the federal arrangements throughout the process.

Although the matter was handled relatively satisfactorily, the "sudden intervention" of the Norman Military Observer Mission forced the exercise command to reconsider various factors such as security, diplomatic influence, and military secrecy.

On the same night that Nikolai revealed the news to Weiss, the troops received an order to postpone the start of the spring exercise by three days, and all combat units were on standby, ready to adjust their positions at any time.

This sudden change aroused people's curiosity. Speculation, comments, and half-truths are rife with gossip.

Some say that the Norman Empire came to inspect the preparations of the Federal Army this time, some say that they already know the strength of the Federal Army well, and this time they are deliberately pretending to be white, and some say that the real foreshadowing of the Norman Empire is the "Summer-Thunderstorm" two months later, which is a super-large-scale fireworks event held for the 20th anniversary of the accession to the throne of Hohenstaufen IV, which is to show off muscles and praise achievements. And then? And then, of course, to provoke a war again for world domination!

After two days, even if you squat in a pit, you can hear several statements. Net starter

The soldiers who live a monotonous life simply bring the spirit of gossip to the extreme.

There was not much time left, and whether the conference exercise should be carried out according to the original plan, or whether it would be partially adjusted, or re-planned, was certainly not up to these junior officers, ordinary soldiers, and cadets to decide. To a certain extent, they are all irresponsible melon-eating masses, how to order from above, how they do it, the soldiers will block the water and cover the earth, it's as simple as that.

In Weiss's sight, only Nikolai was sullen all day.

The delay in his brother, Caesar Leebard, was one reason for his low mood, and the other reason was that Major Rookes, after learning that the Norman Military Observer Mission would be observing the exercises, insisted on keeping him away from the front line of the battle, at least to the corpsion-level staff, so as not to threaten his personal safety from unknown factors.

In the eyes of most trainees, a midshipman is a promising job. Staff officers, that is, assisting commanders in making suggestions, can be said to be hard for a while and benefit for a lifetime. In the Union Army, especially in the Army, how many generals and colonels did not start from the staff position? However, for Nikolai, staff officers are a rather boring job, because it is foreseeable that no matter what level of staff he goes to, everyone will never give him the hardest and most tiring work because of his status.

Nikolai disagreed, and Major Brooks didn't dare to come hard, but his grinding day after day really made Nikolai almost crazy.

Fortunately, the order came down, and the Basston Student Regiment was incorporated into the "second wave reserve" of the defending side. The trainees packed up overnight, boarded the flying transport ship, and collectively moved to the "big rear" more than 400 kilometers away from the main battlefield.

The spring conference exercise, which was postponed for three days, finally sounded the horn.

Perhaps it was intentional on the part of the exercise command, but as soon as the exercise began, the First Fleet, which played the role of the attacking side, inflicted heavy losses on the Second and Third Fleets in a needle-to-needle battle against Maimang, gaining relative air supremacy on the battlefield. The First Corps, which has the title of "Champion", took the lead and arrived at an important supply point located more than 60 kilometers behind the defensive line before the defender's first-line troops retreated, and with the strong support of the flying fleet, quickly seized this significant tactical support point and cut off the main supply lines of the defender's four main corps - according to the rules of the exercise, These defending units were subjected to a 1-2 "battle loss ratio penalty" in the ensuing battle. By the time they withdrew to the second line of defense in disarray, half of their forces had already been lost, and the exercise had only been completed for three days.

Even at the beginning of the last war, the hastily responding Federation forces did not appear to be defeated in the face of the main Norman forces.

According to the revised plan of the exercises, the defenders had three times the total strength of the opponent. The first-line troops desperately defended the second line of defense, and the "first wave of reserves" quickly went to the front line, trying to stabilize the battle situation, waiting for the opportunity to launch a counterattack, but to the surprise of the defenders, the attackers once again used the air jump tactics, and forced the defense through the air fleet to cover the transport ships, and put two elite infantry divisions into a town at the railway transportation hub, and offset the battle loss ratio punishment without a supply line with the effect of the raid, and quickly seized the town with a knife, which delayed the speed of the defenders' reserves to rush to the front line. It also choked the main supply lines of the defending front-line troops, and although the two elite infantry divisions were completely wiped out after a fierce battle of one day and one night, they created a result that far outweighed their losses.

On the seventh day after the start of the exercise, the "second wave of reserves" received the order to go to the front, which was a full week earlier than the original planned time, and the report from the exercise headquarters showed that the loss rate of the defender's first-line troops was close to 80%, those elite corps had been basically wiped out, and the first wave of reserves no longer advanced to the front line, but organized defense in the third and last line of preset defense.

According to the rules of the exercise, the defending side suffered successive defeats, the morale was greatly affected, the combat effectiveness of the flying fleet was weakened by 20%, and the ground forces were weakened by 30%, and the situation was precarious.