"What are you going to do?"

On the walls of the Broken Mountain Fortress, before the pale-faced Archduke of Scimitar rushed down the stairs, the black-haired wizard rushed in front of her.

"What for... Are you really asking or are you pretending to be stupid?"

Salika pressed the hilt of the knife with her right hand, and glared at Loren with a cannibalistic expression: "Seth Braha is dead, more than a thousand Boi are dead, and you are still asking, and you are still standing here to ask?!"

"I'm just asking you, what do you want to do?"

Ignoring Emperor Conrad and Dresis in front of him, plus a group of guards behind him, Loren still said in that calm tone: "Make it clear, otherwise I won't let you leave." ”

"Don't let me go... Who are you when you are?!"

Syllable!

Enraged, Salika grasped the handle of the knife in her right hand, and before the blade could be unsheathed, Loren grabbed her wrist first, and pinched it hard to make her release the handle and raise it as if asking a question, and the fragile joints "creaked" in the hands of the black-haired wizard.

A scene between the electric light and the fire, Drexis frowned.

"Hard, if you have the ability, you can pinch off my right hand, otherwise let go!"

Obviously already on the verge of dislocation, the angry scimitar female archduke still didn't even frown, but still made her calm down a little: "Unless you kill me, don't try to stop me from saving them!"

"Save whom?" Loren still asked.

"Bullshit, of course Seth Braha, and the bastards he took away!"

"Seth Braha is dead, and the more than a thousand Boi... Already dead. ”

"I don't care, anyway, I want to see people alive! I want to see corpses when I die! I'm their grand duke, I can't just leave them on the ice field and don't ask!"

"You know that you are the Grand Duke of Boi, and in that case, you should calm down and think about what to do, rather than just rush out without asking. ”

The black-haired wizard said coldly: "What's more, this is a war between the Empire and the Kingdom of the Azores, and you have no right to leave the fortress with Boi's hussars and go to war with them." ”

"I know, I don't need you to tell me!" Interrupting Loren angrily, Salika said angrily, "I only need my escort silver armor horseman, three hundred people are enough, and I will lend you a few witchers you brought, I promise to pay you back?!"

"This ......"

The frowning Drexis just wanted to step forward, but was stopped by Conod beside him with a raised hand, and a glance in his eyes signaled him to retreat.

"Even if Duke Loren agrees, I won't allow you to leave, Salika Jonah. ”

The expressionless Conod took two steps forward and stood between the black-haired wizard and the archduchess, his scarlet eyes looking at the two of them at the same time: "Even if you are prepared to take your oath as infallible, please don't forget that it is not only you who are fighting the enemy right now. ”

"If we are defeated and the fortress of Broken Mountain falls, it will not only be the Sakrans who will die—to the east is Boi, and to the south is Byrne;

"And don't forget, in addition to the warriors of Boi, there are more than 200 valiant Fortress Rangers, as well as the Knight of the Church of the Broken Mountain Fortress, the Sworn Knight Naze, who has been here for decades. ”

"Is it right that each of us should irresponsibly rush out to take revenge and make their sacrifice completely worthless?!"

In the face of Conod's loud scolding, Salika Jonah gritted her teeth and neither refuted nor admitted.

But Loren knew very well that she had been convinced—it was already extremely difficult for this straight scimitar archduke to make her patient listen to others.

"The situation now is that our strategic purpose has been detected by the enemy, and a powerful mobile force has been surrounded and annihilated by the enemy, and it is very likely that it has been completely annihilated. ”

After seeing Salika calm down, Conod said in a deep voice: "Even if it doesn't, this army will definitely lose its fighting strength, and it is impossible to fight again." ”

"So the situation is like this—our outlying reconnaissance strongholds have been uprooted by the enemy, and the only enemy target we have detected is a trap, and we have lost a strong mobile army; There is no way to know. ”

"So, what's next?"

Salika's tone was still a little unhappy, but she still held back her anger: "Assemble another patrol? No problem, leave it to me this time!"

"No, Salika, you misunderstood. ”

The black-haired wizard easily opened her right hand, her expression slightly unnatural: "It's not what we're going to do, it's the enemy... Or what the Eagle King is going to do. ”

Well?

The Archduke of the Scimitar looked confused.

"I'll put it another way......" Loren sighed, "They pulled out all our reconnaissance strongholds before, for what?"

"To make us blind and deaf!"

Salika had a "you don't understand this" expression.

"Yes, but that would also be tantamount to exposing their marching route, so they deliberately released a small army to attract our attention, so that we thought: Oh, the previous route was just a front to lure us into the bait. ”

Loren patiently explained, "So what do they want us to do?"

"Keep an eye on this army and find a way to track it or... Annihilate them?" Salika's answer was less certain this time: "In this way, their main army will be safe for the time being." ”

"Yes, some cruel but sensible, and most importantly, able to protect their main army, which is very vulnerable in the blizzard, and able to continue the march without being raided. ”

"But the current situation is that they have deliberately eliminated the cavalry we sent in this way, and they have completely annihilated them. Loren sighed:

"Why?"

This time Salika didn't know what to answer, because it looked like the elves were doing contradictory things.

Just kidding, this is the territory of the Empire, and even in the glacial wasteland to the north, the Imperial army definitely knows more than these newcomer elven warriors.

In fact, by rushing back to report the Rangers, and adding the time of the journey, it was already possible to roughly deduce the exact location of the outbreak of the battle from the fortress up and down, and then it would not be too easy to send an army of about 5,000 men to capture them, just counting the speed of the enemy's march.

Destroying the reconnaissance system of the Broken Mountain Fortress? If it's those strongholds, it's already been destroyed, if it's cavalry... The total number of cavalry under the Broken Mountain Fortress now exceeds 15,000, which is enough to launch a frontal attack on this army of about 40,000 people.

Annihilating an entire army may seem intimidating, but it is nothing to the overall strength of the fortress.

So what are they going to do?

"Previous battles, including the sacrifices of Count Seth Braha and the knights of Nazey, were all due to our miscalculation of the enemy's intentions. Emperor Conod said coldly:

"So the first thing we have to do now is figure it out... What the hell are they going to do!"

The black-haired wizard bowed slightly.

Intelligence is always the absolute core of a campaign, and even a war.

Only by knowing all the information about the enemy and one's own side and making detailed judgments can one make a detailed decision, and casually throwing a soldier into a battlefield that he does not know at all, or even completely unknown, is more serious than misjudging the surname, and it is not even a risk.

That's deliberately looking for death.

The enemy chose the most remote battlefield, but to a certain extent, it also blocked the possibility of the empire being able to detect their movements, and to a certain extent, it did put the empire in a situation of "blind and deaf", and the only seemingly safe way was to sit and wait for death in the fortress of Broken Mountain.

But this is certainly the most desired outcome of the elves - to ensure that there is no further disruption before launching a general assault on the Broken Mountain Fortress.

Therefore, it was never advisable to be trapped in the fortress, and it was the only way for Conod to regain the initiative in this war by initiating an attack, and he could not wait for the enemy to attack, even if it was only for the sake of promise.

Therefore, if it is not possible to find out the enemy's purpose for the time being, then it is necessary to find out another thing......

"What is our purpose, and what is the enemy's purpose?"

Conod, with a solemn expression, said what Loren had always wanted to say.

"Our purpose, of course, is to hold the fortress of Broken Mountain from being captured. Salika, who had been interrupted once, was no longer as eager to speak as she had at the beginning:

"As for those bunnies... Probably, it should be to capture the fortress of Broken Mountain, and then go south to join up with the other two armies and attack the imperial capital Golovin together?"

"It's not so much an end as it is a 'result that will happen when a set goal is achieved'. Drexis, who was always standing behind Conod, couldn't help but rush:

"The established combat objectives should be able to achieve each step step in a step-by-step manner, and there are clear guidelines - as long as it is executed according to the phalanx and each step can be completed in place, then no matter how many changes and unexpected situations occur, the inevitable result can be achieved in the end!"

"How can that kind of thing ......?"

Before the Archduke of the Scimitar Lady, who was about to say "impossible", finished speaking, she saw the black-haired wizard on the side, looking at her silently with a meaningful face.

Suddenly, Salika was speechless.

Isn't this guy in front of you, who obviously hadn't fought a few battles before becoming a duke, and was cautious to the point of being a "coward", the best proof of this?

In the Centaur War, Byrne's strategic goal was to "assist" Boe to achieve the final victory, so Loren Turin has been openly and secretly prompting the previous Archduke Boi to engage in a full-scale decisive battle with the enemy's main force, and he himself led Byrne's army to cut off the enemy's supply lines, prompting the decisive battle to break out in advance.

Although the situation changed in the end, because of the decisive battle and the severed supply line, the main force of the Centaur elite was indeed wiped out, and the final change was only a question of "who won the war".

Either way, Byrne accomplished his war goals and "assisted" Boe to victory.

and his first battle after joining him, rescuing the Thousand Hordes—he planned to gather more troops and destroy the centaurs besieging the city, but Loren Turin judged that the Thousand Hordes would not survive at that time, and he had to march immediately.

His own thought was "destroy the enemy, and the city would be saved", while Loren Turin's view was "first make sure that the city would not be occupied" - the Thousand Hordes were spared, indeed... It's just the end result.

Whatever the outcome, the city was not captured, whether the rest of the centaur army was wiped out, whether there were still Boi troops stationed in the city, or even whether there were still alive......

It really doesn't matter, because no matter what it becomes, it's definitely a thousand times stronger than being overrun by centaurs.

I'm afraid this is still the case in the battle of Broken Mountain, and in Loren Turin's mind, as long as he makes sure that the fortress is not captured, everything else may not matter, right?

This feeling made Salika finally realize, but it was also very uncomfortable, and her expression even distorted slightly-because it was tantamount to admitting that she had been fighting since birth, almost in order to become the Lord of Boi, in what she was best at......

It's better than this wizard who has never fought a war and only became a duke by being elected by others!

"Actually... Salika was right. ”

The black-haired wizard, who didn't notice the expression of the girl next to him becoming "complaining", coughed lightly and said seriously: "The enemy is in the far north, then they can only attack to the south - capturing the Broken Mountain Fortress is the goal they must complete." ”

"As for us... The goal at this stage should be to ensure that the Broken Mountain Fortress does not fall, and to destroy this elven army as much as possible - the ideal goal should be to kill or capture the Eagle King alive and demoralize the enemy. ”

"So you're in favor of defending the Broken Mountain Fortress?" Conrad asked.

"No, I've always thought that offense is the best defense, and sometimes it's very reasonable to sacrifice something to gain the initiative. Loren said slowly:

"As for the enemy's purpose... Whatever it is, they're definitely trying to disrupt our deployment, so the idea is to let him go, they do whatever they want, and we're going to go with the plan. ”

"Since the enemy has wiped out the cavalry we sent to pursue, it is better to send troops to the Valley of Bloodbones, build a solid fortress and outpost in the glacial wasteland, expand the reconnaissance area, and let the enemy have nothing to hide!"

As the words fell, Loren stared at His Majesty the Emperor with burning eyes.

Connold, who was silent for a moment, looked at the Valley of Bloody Remains in the distance, as if after thinking for a while, he slowly spoke: "How many soldiers can your floating city 'Horn Fort' carry?"

"About 2,000 people. Loren immediately gave the answer.

"Can I moor on land?"

"If the terrain is smooth and solid enough... No problem. ”

"How many people do you need?"

"Give me all my army, and give me two thousand infantry and two thousand cavalry. Loren said in a deep voice, "I promise that when the battle of the Broken Mountain Fortress begins, not a single soldier will rush through the Valley of Bloodbones. ”

"Yes!"

.。 m.