Early morning foggy morning, Uridracas, North Fries, region.

At the top of this reinforced concrete fortress embedded in the mountain, three hemispherical turrets are visible, and three pairs of thick barrels protrude from their thick steel shells, and the muzzles of the guns are raised to the sky. This is a powerful weapon for the Uridrakas outpost to withstand the surprise attacks of enemy aviation, and several examples of the last war have shown that a strong fortress with a steel turret is a very effective means of ground-based air defense, sufficient to deal with flying warships equipped with guns of the same caliber.

At the top of the fort were fixed lookout posts at all four corners, each equipped with an armed man with a rifle on his back, some in military attire, neatly matched and with a capable expression, always keeping a vigilant eye on the surroundings. Some of them look like militiamen, although there is no shortage of weapons and equipment, but they seem to behave casually, and the boring work of guarding the sentry makes them impetuous.

Over time, the fog in the mountains and forests gradually dissipates, and the visual distance gradually increases. At this moment, a gray airship appeared above the checkpoint without warning and silently, and six soldiers in black combat uniforms quickly landed on top of the checkpoint along two ropes. Before the sentries could give an alarm, they shot three of them with their crossbows.

Only one sentry was quick to dodge the arrow, and fired a warning shot.

The gray airship rose and disappeared into the clouds again.

The silence of the early morning was shattered by the sound of gunfire. The black-clad soldiers who descended from the sky left their cold weapons and took out semi-automatic pistols and fist-sized grenades, some of them were responsible for guarding the passage to the lower part of the fort, some went to deal with the sentries at the sentry posts, and some blocked the muzzles of the anti-aircraft guns with special plugs. They have a clear division of labor, tacit cooperation, and very quick action. In less than two minutes, they managed to jam the muzzle of the cannon, kill the last sentry, and then fired three green flares into the sky.

As an important outpost against the Norman Empire's attack, the Kingdom of Fries spent two years and a lot of manpower and material resources to build the Uridrakas outpost after the end of the last war. In addition to artillery of various types and purposes, the fort also has a sizable underground fortification, with a standing supply of ammunition to last the garrison for half a year. With the end of the independence referendum and the establishment of the Jokén regime, the Northfries crisis seemed to be coming to an end, and the Uridrakas outpost was garrisoned not only by elite Wessex soldiers, but also by a large number of Yorkén militia. After reacting, the defenders quickly mobilized their forces in an attempt to recapture the top of the checkpoint and eliminate the invaders, but they encountered explosives in the passage leading to the top of the checkpoint, and each explosion roared like a hammer to the defenders, causing them to lose confidence and courage.

Seeing that the passage leading from inside the fort to the top of the checkpoint was difficult, the Wessex soldiers turned to climbing the emergency staircase outside the checkpoint. Although they covered each other and coordinated with each other, the other side had the advantage of the terrain, and the heavy weapons of the sentry post were completely unable to cope with this unexpected situation, and the defenders failed in successive rounds of attacks.

Ten minutes later, a rumbling roar came from the air. With no contours of the projectile in sight, the defenders hastily designed the guns under the sentry post, but the vertical firing range of these medium-caliber guns was far inferior to that of the anti-aircraft guns in the upper part of the sentry post, and the aimless firing did not work at all. Suddenly, the roar of machinery from the air became clearer, and a light transport ship covered with rivets slowly descended from the vertical top of the checkpoint, hovering thirty or forty meters from the top of the checkpoint. A large number of black-clad soldiers slid down the ropes to the top of the checkpoint, and the hanging frames on the flying transport ship continued to lift down the combat equipment and ammunition supplies.

With the advent of flying transport ships, the tide of battle was reversed. Black-clad soldiers use flamethrowers, burst guns, and a variety of explosive weapons to penetrate the outpost, and the defenders either hide in underground fortifications or flee in a hurry.

After more than two hours of fighting, the easily defended and difficult to defend post of Uridrakas was uprooted by the Norman army. Nearly half of the 120 Yorken militia and 35 Wessex soldiers stationed there were killed in the battle, most of the rest surrendered, only a few escaped, and the Norman army who launched the surprise attack suffered only negligible losses......

On the same morning, the Norman army captured 4 outposts in the west and northwest of the North Fries region in almost the same way of warfare, and the speed and efficiency were so fast and efficient that the Wessex army and the Jokon regime were caught off guard, and also gave the world an earth-shattering thunder: the Wessex army, which was good at defense, was so vulnerable in front of the elite troops of the Norman Empire!

On the road leading from the Norman border to the heart of North Fries, there is also a military fortress built after the war, the Fortress of Bergest. Rather than storming the new fortress, which had been in operation for less than a decade, the Normans leapfrogged with flying ships and marines, capturing the outposts and towns around Bergster Fortress, cutting it off from all contact with the outside world and trapping hundreds of Wessex soldiers and a considerable number of the Yorken militia.

At dusk, six flying ships painted with the royal emblem of Wessex appeared northwest of Siege Fortress. The sheer size of this flying fleet is not large, but it has previously left the aviation forces of the Kingdom of Fries at a loss, for no other reason, in this flying fleet, there are two Kaburg-class armored cruisers that the Kingdom of Wessex is quite proud of, they are the latest to be built, the highest level of technology, and the most comprehensive combat capability among the active armored cruisers in various countries. The flying ships in active service in the Kingdom of Fries together are not enough for the tonnage of these two Caburg-class armored cruisers, and there is no chance of winning in a direct confrontation.

In the direction of the sunset, the silhouettes of 4 flying ships appeared. In the command room of the flagship of the Wessex fleet, the Merendigan, the officers suddenly became nervous. After a while, a report came from the lookout that the 4 flying ships that appeared in sight were suspected to be 2 Glenffin-class armored cruisers of the Norman Empire and 2 first-class protective ships built after the war.

Hearing this report, the officers relaxed a little. Although they were also armored cruisers, the Glenfing-class of the Norman Empire was an old ship built during the war and completed and commissioned after the war, with an age of nearly 20 years, and the design details and craftsmanship were inferior to those of the Carburg-class built after the war.

Admiral Vionale, who had been appointed by the King of Wessex as commander of the task force, was now looking gloomily at the black spots to the west. The brutal battles of the last war are still fresh in our minds, and the Normans' ferocity and disregard for life made them formidable opponents on the battlefield. If it is only an armed confrontation, then there is no doubt that this Wessex fleet will be able to occupy a certain advantage. If it is a fight to the death, then victory or defeat does not simply depend on the paper strength of both sides, but a combination of tactical strategy, morale, fighting spirit, luck and other factors. Today's Wessex soldiers are a little less mentally than they were in the last war, and if the Norman soldiers on the other side are still as brave and fierce as they were then, or are full of hatred because of the bitter consequences of defeat, the current situation may not be optimistic......

After hesitating for a long time, General Waiolena took a deep breath: "Order, sound the battle alarm!" ”

The officers around him were not at all surprised by this order from the commander. Although war had not yet been declared between the Kingdom of Wessex and the Norman Empire, the Norman army had forcibly captured several outposts defended by Wessex soldiers and the Yorkon militia, and there must have been casualties in the process, and the two sides were essentially in a state of fire. Whatever the orders received by the Norman ships, the Wessex fleet should be on combat alert and ready to engage the other side for reason.

Whether or not they would actually fight the Normans was another matter.

As the battle alarm sounded, the six Wessex battleships began to climb upwards. If it is said that the battle between surface ships is a "plane battlefield" on the same level, then the battle between flying ships is a "three-dimensional battlefield" from the ground to an altitude of 10,000 meters. The two may seem to have similar modes of engagement, but they are very different.

As the Wessex fleet increased its altitude to gain an advantageous firing position, four Norman warships in the distance formed a column and climbed to the Wessex fleet.

The distance between the two sides continued to close, and through his telescope, General Vionale saw the outline of the enemy warship more and more clearly, and his heart became more and more puzzled: Those two battleships were really Glenfin-class armored ships?

After the end of the last war, the defeated Norman Empire lost a large number of overseas territories, suffered heavy economic losses, political turmoil, and was even on the verge of collapse for a time, but under the leadership of Hohenstaufen IV, the Normans stubbornly resisted the infiltration of capital and finance from outside, and survived the most dangerous post-war downturn in a way that was almost closed off from the rest of the country. The powers of the Kingdom of Wessex and the Free Federation of Ulster also adopted a strategy of joint boycott of the Norman Empire for their own reasons, and restricted their citizens and businesses from cooperating with the Norman Empire, which was excluded by the International Peace League for a long time. Twenty years after the war, the Norman Empire seemed to be an island abandoned by the civilized world, with little communication between the nations at least at the public level - for example, General Vionale, as a senior commander of the flying fleet of the Kingdom of Wessex, was well versed in every class of flying ships in service and in service in his country, and was also very familiar with the equipment and organization of the Ulster Free Federal Air Force, having seen most of their ships, and obtaining more detailed technical data through the intelligence services. However, his intuitive impression of the Norman Empire was still stuck in the last war, and the information obtained from the intelligence services was neither accurate nor complete, and even contradictory, making it difficult for him to make correct judgments.

Seeing that the four Norman warships continued to approach, and that they were about to come within range of his own guns in a few minutes, General Vionale's heart beat suddenly. If the Normans were determined to fight them, they would have to change formation and move into engagement, where they would have to respond quickly – desperately fighting and exploratory firefights, using very different tactics and battle formations. In the current situation, it is definitely too late to ask the superiors again, and where to go, you must make up your mind and take responsibility for it......

6 flying warships with a combat tonnage of 27,000+, with a combat crew of nearly 2,000, is a heavy responsibility!