On a moonless night, there was an inexplicable depression in the area of war. In a lush valley southwest of Slane, thousands of Union officers and soldiers, most of them from the Lorraine Reserve, lurk in a lush valley. The tactical, disciplined, organizational, and tenacious nature of the reserve battalions that used to be unknown in the past have now been upgraded to "hunting battalions" that are well-known throughout the army, and their tactics, discipline, organization, and tenacity have all been rapidly improved with the accumulation of combat experience; even if outstanding members are constantly transferred to front-line units and new recruits are added in batches, the unique attributes of guerrilla local combat units are like forging hammers cast steel, and their shape has been formed, and the more they are frustrated, the stronger they become.

It was late at night, and the sound of gunfire could still be heard in the direction of Slyen, setting off the silence of the valley. Suddenly, a low roar came from the air, and the atmosphere suddenly became tense. In the line of sight, a few looming lights made people reverie, but set up here, every officer and soldier was given a clear order: no flares, no matter what happens, even if the enemy walks in front of them, there must be no movement.

The roar of machinery came from far and near, the turbulent currents shook the foliage, and the beams of light swirled in all directions—large, heavy flying machines flew low in the valley, sometimes fast, sometimes slow, sometimes hovering. The beam of light projected onto the ground, coming from navigation lights rather than searchlights, had very limited brightness, and with no flares used, the lurkers in blade of grass disguised remained undetected by the enemy. The abominable roar faded away, but within half an hour it was repeated, and it felt closer to the ground. This repeated low-altitude reconnaissance was obviously a foreshadowing for subsequent operations. In the middle of the valley, the cacophony of heavy objects crushing trees is clearly discernible, and then a directional fireworks signal appears in that direction. The roar from above the valley came one after another, from far to near, and then from near to far, and finally disappeared into the vast night sky.

The valley was silent again, but it was not the same as before. The lurking Union officers and soldiers tensed their nerves, clenched their weapons, and waited for the order to open fire. The vision was still dark, and as time passed, there was a faint sound in my ears, like the wind blowing grass blades, but heavier than the wind, and like funnel quicksand, endlessly.

Weiss had been standing beside a large fir tree for a long time, squinting at the situation in the valley, and slowly raising his flare gun in his right hand. In the previous two days, he repeatedly studied the terrain, made a bold judgment according to the changes in the battle situation, and took the initiative to ask General Arteus for help, and led the few remaining mobile forces on the battlefield of Slane to set up an ambush here. Their target was not the besieged Norman army around Slyon, but the Norman reinforcements who arrived at some unknown time and place - the judgment of experience may not work, the intuitive sense may not be accurate, and the probability of the two being combined is only three or four out of ten.

The prey is already in the urn, and Weiss will not miss the opportunity no matter what. He took a deep breath and pulled the trigger, and the darkness was shattered by the splendor......

In what later generations called the "Battle of Fate", the First Battle of Slane lasted eight days and ended in a victory for the Union army. In this battle, the Normans lost nearly 10,000 troops, and although the casualties of the Federation army were more than the opponent in absolute numbers, with the situation in Lorraine at that time, the continuous attrition of the invading enemy was in line with the established strategy of the defenders, even if the price was doubled, the invaders were bound to be the losing side.

In this battle, the Lorraine reserve troops, who received the title of "Chasseur Battalion", showed a convincing enough performance. Although a considerable part of this was due to Weiss's personal special role, which would have been greatly diminished by any commander, the victory was a real victory, and no one would dispute that. In the weeks that followed, the Lorraine army and civilians followed the battle plan to make the Norman forces that had penetrated throughout Lorraine passive and defeated.

Thanks to this series of victories, the morale of the Union Army, which had been sluggish, was greatly boosted. Songs of victory can be heard everywhere in the camps, on the march, and even in the towns and villages where the army passes. However, it was obviously too early to praise the victory at this time, but anyone who had dealt with the Normans many times would not despise their will and tenacity. In Weiss's view, the victory at this stage largely benefited from the "change of track" in the tactics and tactics of the federal army, and benefited from the strong support of the people of Lorraine represented by the reserve soldiers on the battle line. It is a delicate period on the battlefield when it is very easy to be targeted by the enemy.

The Norman counterattack came unsurprisingly, and the huge Norman army, supported by a large number of combat aircraft, broke through into Lorraine. They sent additional troops and equipment to the Marine units of the bridgehead established in Lorraine, and this reinforcement was not a one-time drop, but a wave after wave! The Federal Air Force stationed on the Western Front reacted quickly, destroying and heavily damaging a number of Norman ships and taking out a large number of Norman fighters in fierce air battles in several effective assault operations. The Normans regarded Lorraine as a key battleground, throwing their most elite aviation units into battle and fighting with a determination not to back down.

The Federation Army was left in a situation where nothing could be done in this near-frantic battle.

On the big chessboard of the war, the Normans attacked from all sides, but their overall strength did not have an absolute advantage, they seemed to form a siege on multiple fronts, in fact, it was impossible to balance the fronts, but there was a strategy for deployment, using the mobility of troops to make the Federation army take care of one or the other. In this war, the Union army was always on the inner line, with a shorter maneuver distance, while the Normans and their allies were on the outside line, whether it was the movement of troops, the delivery of supplies, or the strategic strategy had a longer distance. The advantage of the Normans was that they seized the strategic initiative and took full advantage of the fog of the battlefield. They gave the Wessexians the control of the northern front, and then harassed the eastern front with a strong air force and a small number of elite marines, and all the layout would eventually belong to one main attack...... Now, they have crossed the Monamolin Mountains and chosen to launch their main attack on the Western Front. The Norman forces that landed at Lorraine as a bridgehead increased rapidly in just a few days.

The fierce offensive of the Normans was obviously not confined to Lorraine. On the Western Front, the vast steppes of the Nachatar Federal State were more suitable for their ground forces to gallop, but the two successive waves of landing forces were mainly infantry, and mechanized equipment was limited by the efficiency and scale of air transportation, and did not become the protagonist from the beginning.

Within a week of the massive offensive on the Western Front, the Normans completely occupied northwestern Lorraine and southwestern Neuchâtel, and in the ensuing Battle of Wallens, the nearly 100,000 regular troops deployed by the Union army were unable to hold out for only two days and one night under the powerful attack of the Normans and retreated. After the capture of Wallens, the Normans continued to advance into the Norin hinterland. Soon, the Norman reconnaissance force reached the outskirts of Somsonas.

If Somsonas were to be used as a tactical stronghold to fend off the Normans, and if that would have been achieved, the ancient, peaceful town would almost certainly have been reduced to rubble in the heat of battle. In this case, the Federal Army decided to evacuate the townspeople and deploy defensive lines based on the terrain here. The Federal Air Force also used Somnas as a reference coordinate to launch a new round of fierce confrontation with the Norman air power.

For Weiss, Somsonas is not only the sustenance of feelings, but also the fruit of his struggle. As soon as the enemy approaches the city, the industrial area of the Free Lorraine Canal, located south of Somsonas, will also be trampled by the enemy. Before the outbreak of the war, this modern industrial area was the representative and model of Lorraine's industrialization, and its production capacity accounted for nearly 1/10 of Lorraine's industrial scale, and the production scale of the entire Lorraine was close to 5%. It is important to know that the establishment and operation of this industrial zone has only been a few years, and it is quite remarkable to have such results, and the future development potential is worth looking forward to.

After the outbreak of the war, a considerable part of Lorraine's factories switched to wartime mode, and their production covered guns, vehicles, and aircraft parts. If he had a choice, Weiss didn't want the Normans to occupy it anyway, but the war was so brutal. Before the arrival of the Norman ground forces, the Normans began to bombard, and the people began to plan for the worst - to turn the tall factories into strong fortresses and build defensive lines along the canals......

The pace of the Normans' offensive was not non-stop, and during the capture of Wallens's attack on the fierce Somsonas, the top of the Federal Army was also actively deploying troops, and a large number of elite troops were transferred from the eastern front of the northern front to the western front. Although it was a long journey, the Ulster Free Federation, which had a well-developed railway system, could not be a problem to move quickly on a large scale, as long as it overcame the attack from the air. With effective logistics and organizational support, hundreds of thousands of troops arrived on the Western Front within half a month, some joined the Lorraine battlefield, and more were invested in the Neuchâtel region, setting off a wave of counterattacks in that endless steppe.

With air forces evenly matched, ground commanders on both sides were once again given another opportunity to demonstrate their command skills. Large-scale fighting took place in the south and southwest of the Federal State of Nachâtar, and the Norman forces in Lorraine were undoubtedly weakened in intensity and intensity, although aggressively responding. Under these circumstances, the inhabitants of Lorraine had more time to prepare for the upcoming defensive battle of Somsonas, to complete the wartime recuperation and to assemble fresh troops from the Eastern and Northern Fronts, and to bring more than 30 battalions of reserve troops under Weiss to be deployed in industrial areas and mountains. Subsequently, a large number of air defence units also moved to the Somsonas area to provide an umbrella for the front-line troops and reserve forces.

The decisive battle of the federal state of Nachâtar lasted for nearly a week before the winner was decided, and unfortunately it was not a single federal general who became famous, but the new Norman Field Marshal, Alves Hawk Seidlinz.