Broken Mountain Fortress, on the road to the Valley of Blood.

As the clock progressed to the end of winter, the weather was not improving, but was starting to get worse – a few days of clear skies seemed to have never existed, obscured by clouds and snow.

In the cold wind, a large cavalry corps marched in a long and narrow line of four or five horsemen along the ancient road left by Brandon I in the sixth generation, and advanced towards the Valley of Blood;

Riding leather-clad horses and walking on the sometimes bumpy and sometimes smooth wilderness, the knights carried heavier bags than they had come, and even their armor was wrapped in warm furs, and finally began to adapt to the hellish weather of this cold winter.

Of course, thanks to the hard work of the defenders of the Broken Mountain Fortress for generations... Standing on a gentle slope, Count Eckert of Fort Fury, sighed and looked out at the road in the distance.

This is the wasteland in the north of the Broken Boundary Mountain—not to mention the settlements, there can't even be a human figure within a dozen kilometers, and it's inconceivable that under such harsh conditions, a relatively intact road can be maintained for normal marching.

"Mistress Eckert——!"

Loud shouts and the sound of horses' hooves echoed in the sky, and a cavalryman with a golden lion banner on a black background galloped along the side of the procession, until he saw the figure of the Count of Fury Keep and hurriedly reined in the reins.

"On the Duke's orders - the Floating City ahead has completed its anchorage in the Valley of Blood, and right now two thousand legionnaires and the Duke's direct army are encamping around Fort Clarrum!"

"Legionnaires are to camp on the east and west sides of the Valley of Bloodbones, on both flanks of Fort Bugle, to ensure that the surrounding area must be flat wilderness, and that they must never go near glaciers and high grounds;

"Understood!"

The frowning Earl of Fort Fury didn't ask a word, and without looking at it, he stretched out his hand to the attendant behind him: "Map!"

The squire, who was in a hurry, spread a somewhat sketchy map directly on the horse's back.

Looking at this map of the glacial wasteland, which has not changed much since Brandon I the Sage, the Earl of Fort Fury frowned even more.

What appears to be a flat glacial wasteland is in fact a mix of broken hills and rugged terrains, glaciers, cliffs, peaks, frozen lakes...... The only place that can really facilitate the deployment of a large-scale army is really the Valley of Blood.

After seeing the terrain with his own eyes, Eckert was basically sure that the Battle of the Valley of Blood, the "Sage" Brandon I, was not an accident, but a well-planned and designed battle.

Only there, the discipline and formation of the Imperial army, the advantages of cavalry assault and long-range crossbowmen counterattack, can be fully brought into play;

And if they encounter the enemy in the shattered wilderness, the Imperial army that cannot maintain its formation will probably only end up being crushed by the monsters and evil gods, and then being divided and slaughtered.

The ultimate battle between tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of troops will determine the fate of the two major forces... It's just a matter of the end result and the throw, and the real thing is how to put all your forces into the battlefield and make sure that the final battlefield is in your best interest.

At this moment, the Count of Eckert suddenly realized how wise it was for the Duke of Loren to do everything he could in the past few years to develop trade, unify the military system, and finally hollow out the wealth of the Byrne Church.

Because to do all this, it requires a huge amount of manpower, material and financial resources, as well as an organization with iron discipline, and whoever can prepare everything necessary for war faster, more, and better and put it where it needs to be put will win the absolute initiative.

To a certain extent, who will win the war is likely to be decided before the war begins, and no matter how a knight who fights alone can only make inconspicuous waves in the monstrous waves.

Therefore, a better commander will ensure that this kind of decisive battle does not happen at all - in the preparation stage of both sides, the enemy will be nipped in the bud, and finally overtaken by the complete crushing posture.

The bitter cold wind in the wilderness woke Count Eckert from his endless contemplation, stamped a few marks on the map with the coat of arms on his ring, and handed it to the messenger who delivered the letter:

"Give this map to Count Ramalos of Lakeside City and Count Rigrel of White Horse Peak, and order them to lead their subordinates, cooperate with the Empire's rangers, and start scouting near the marked locations. ”

"It is not allowed to let go of a cave, not a trace is to be missed, and once you find a trace of the enemy, you must report it immediately, and you are not allowed to organize a battle without authorization!"

"Yes!"

The messenger who took the map stuffed it directly into his arms, pulled up the flag, and continued to gallop along the queue to the next station.

"Scouting the enemy, is this preparing for war with the Eagle King of the Azores?" Looking at the messenger who had already run away, the squire behind Eckert couldn't help but ask.

The expressionless Count of Fort Fury looked back, his gaze swept over his agitated squire, and he couldn't help frowning.

..............................

"Quite the opposite—we used cavalry on such a large scale to conduct armed reconnaissance, and put on the appearance of cleaning up the battlefield and preparing for battle, in order to avoid an immediate head-on confrontation with the Eagle King. ”

At the top of the Horn Fort tower in the Valley of Blood, looking at Lusen, who was still confused, Loren explained in a deep voice.

The gray-eyed young man standing behind him was silent, but he still couldn't hide the curious expression on his face.

The black-haired wizard didn't answer him immediately, his eyes fixed on a desolate valley of blood, and within an hour of the Horn Fort, two thousand Imperial legionnaires and Byrne's knights had begun to build rings of fortifications and camps in the snow in the cold wind.

Admittedly, the Empire's "Black Walls" were second to none among the principalities in terms of endurance and adaptability, and even in the frozen ground of the wilderness, they had the means to dig trenches with shields and shovels, and even build "parapets" out of cleared snow.

With the help of 2,000 legionnaires, in just an hour a circular camp around the castle had taken shape, with the simplest parapets, moats, and tent areas;

Even in the "inner ring" near the castle, the legionnaires reserved large excavated "open space" for the time being, which could be used as a distribution center for supplies, and later used to build a grain warehouse, a barracks hospital, an ambulance hospital, a weapons storage room, and a blacksmith workshop for repairs, and repaired improvised roads at the same time as the excavation progressed.

According to the legion commander who reported to Loren, they built the "temporary fortress" almost according to the standard of a "semi-permanent barracks";

In addition, looking at the current progress of the project, the most basic construction can be completed in one day, and it will be able to be used normally within a week, and at most two months, this military camp will be able to exist "semi-permanently."

The counts who had come with Loren were almost all silent when they heard this reply.

A fortress can be built in a day and a night... Replacing it with the knights of Byrne is absolutely impossible.

As for the reason, apart from the fact that the legionnaires were almost all peasants and artisans, it was because the military system of the empire was unified twelve generations ago, and the soldiers of East Sackland and West Sakland, except for the differences in accents and uniforms, from boots to armor, from weapons to training... It's all the same.

Loren didn't expect the knights of Byrne to be like the Empire's legions, nor did they need it, he just needed them to understand the purpose and painstaking purpose of their unification of the military system, and no longer oppose them.

The division of the two generations did not separate the various territories of Byrne, but at least there was a semi-independent situation - the poorer areas were better, and the richer counties expected to serve and pay taxes only to the principality, and the rest of the affairs were handled by themselves, no longer subject to the interference of the principality.

In the distance, in the wilderness, marching cavalry could already be seen within the control of Fort Clarrum, and several horsemen galloping towards the fortress.

"It's the messenger who went to make contact with the hussars, and they're back!"

Lusen, who took half a step forward, looked at the banner in the hands of the cavalry, and turned his head to glance at the black-haired wizard beside him: "Coming to summon the message so soon, it is likely that something has been discovered - Lord Loren, we are really... Won't there be an immediate war with the Azorean elves?"

"It's not for us to decide, it's for the commanders of the Azores to decide. ”

Loren shook his head, his expression was calm: "We have to put ourselves in their shoes - if I were the Eagle King, should I immediately destroy this enemy who is trying to station in the Valley of Bloodbones?"

"It's... Right?"

Some self-doubting gray-eyed youths had very uncertain expressions: "Once we establish a camp and fortress in the Valley of Bloodbones, it will greatly threaten their existence, and it will also be the biggest obstacle for them to attack the Broken Mountain Fortress - if we don't destroy us, when we attack the Broken Mountain Fortress, we will definitely suffer from the enemy!"

"That's right, but it's our wishful thinking, not theirs. Loren smiled and sighed lightly: "From the side of the Azorean elves, this may be the result they want." ”

"Huh?"

Lusen's face was incredulous.

"Think about it this way - they wiped out all our scout strongholds, so we sent out the Scout Cavalry, we found their tracks, so we sent a cavalry army to try to capture them, they wiped out the cavalry, so we mobilized a stronger army and took direct control of all the areas from the Valley of the Bloodbones to the Broken Mountain Fortress. ”

"Isn't it particularly logical to think about it this way?"

Lusen nodded, but not understanding, but "I don't understand it, but it makes a lot of sense."

"To put it simply, every move of the empire is a unilateral reaction to the stimuli of the elves, which is very passive and easy to predict. Loren explained:

"After the Count of Braha's cavalry was wiped out, the Empire had two options - either retreat into the fortress and hold out, or take the initiative to expand the area of control and ensure that nothing like this will happen again;"

"Either one, it's the Eagle King's expectations, so their purpose has been achieved, and the next thing they have to do is to get out of our control and continue to do what they have been doing, and ...... at the same time"

"At the same time, it can also allow the empire to waste a lot of manpower and material resources in vain to maintain the existence of the stronghold in the Valley of Blood?!"

Lu Sien, who suddenly woke up, broke out directly.

The black-haired wizard bowed slightly, agreeing.

"So I think in the short term, the other side will try to avoid fighting us, and even deliberately put some bait to distract us from having something to do and not think about the troublesome things of 'where the hell are they?' ”

"So when the enemy actually appeared, we were probably not prepared at all. Loren's face had a playful smile:

"The last thing they're going to do is destroy our demoralized, poorly supplied fortress. ”

It was obviously a joke, but it made Lusen swallow in some fear.

"That's... What can we do to prevent this from happening?"

Lusen asked with difficulty.

"To put it simply, it's about seizing the initiative in this battle – and of course, it's not easy to do that. Loren guessed, "We have to find out where they are and figure out what they want to do." ”

"That's the real priority right now, which is why Connod promised us to let the Azorean captive 'escape' - although it seems to be a slim hope, as long as there is a chance, then it should not be let go. ”

"And we control the Valley of Blood, although it will consume a lot of manpower and material resources, but the elves who are compressed will also be very simple, their supplies are very limited, if they can't capture the fortress of Broken Mountain before they are consumed, it will be equivalent to the total annihilation. ”

In between the two of them, a gloomy Dalton Candle had already walked to the top of the tower, his cold gaze fixed on the black-haired wizard's face from beginning to end.

"Bad news?"

Loren asked instinctively.

Dalton bowed slightly: "Our rangers have found the battlefield where Count Seth Braha, Knight Chief Naze, and a group of hussars were annihilated, less than half a day away from here. ”

"All the corpses, weapons, and torn armor of the Azorean elves, if they ever existed, were all gone, except for the corpses of the cavalrymen. ”

Loren sighed: "That... The good news?"

"We found Knight Chief Naze. ”

"He's still alive?!"

"He's not dead. Dalton emphasized:

"As for whether he is still alive... It depends on what you think. ”