Dressed in military uniform, the heroic Imperial Army Major General Palatina walked at the head of one of the columns, leading all the members of the 1st Brigade of the Knights of Punishment to board the "Hercules" transport airship. The 1st Brigade of the Knights of the Broken Spell led by Baron Bazel took another transport airship "Bull" near the "Hercules" - "Bull" happened to be the nickname of Bazel himself, and he deliberately chose to take this airship to please a good omen.

The remaining two transport airships, the "Dragon Falcon" and the "Roaming", were specially used to transport the mounts of the two cavalry brigades, and the men and horses crossed the river separately, which was a detail deliberately explained by General Engel.

As one gets the impression, General Engel was a man of great detail. The progress of the river-crossing operation was related to the success or failure of the Eastern Crusade, and he did not dare to take it lightly, and personally inquired about every detail.

General Engel's hard work was not in vain. From the very beginning, the operation of crossing the river proceeded steadily according to his expectations, and even the reaction of the Far Eastern border guards on the other side of the river was all within his expectations.

As if awakened by the sudden sound of cannons, at about 5:30 in the morning, six airships flew from the direction of Cold Creek Town, all of which were flying the Koras flag.

This is the 4th and 5th airship fleets of the Far Eastern Air Force, which are subordinate to the Western Front Command, and all the air forces currently in the hands of Marshal Pavel.

The Far Eastern airships circled in clusters over the riverbank, and soon noticed that four unusually large transport airships had risen on the opposite bank, flying over the river at a speed of about 80 miles per hour, and if they were not stopped, the other side would land on the east bank of the river in twenty minutes.

Seeing this, even in the absence of prior intelligence, the commander of the Far Eastern Air Force immediately realized that the four large transports must be carrying Imperial troops, trying to fly across the Turbidity River moat from the air, rather than by erecting pontoon bridges, as had been previously attempted.

The six Far Eastern airships seemed to hesitate to approach to stop the Imperial transports, but they were also worried about being flanked by the Imperial Air Force and the dense anti-aircraft artillery on the ground.

After a brief hesitation, the Far Eastern airship opened its hatches one after another, releasing flocks of giant eagles and pegasus cavalry, moving forward with the airship, seemingly determined to launch a surprise attack and destroy the four transports at any cost.

General Baker had already seen all this, and immediately ordered all the magic airships under his command to press forward to intercept the Far East Air Force and ensure the safe landing of the transport fleet, and a fierce battle broke out in the air.

At 5:40 a.m. on 2 May, the battle that broke out over the east bank of the Zhuolang River was like a spring thundershower, short and intense. After 30 minutes of engagement, the commander of the Far Eastern Air Force realized that he could not fight against the Imperial Air Force, which had an absolute superiority in the number of airships and air forces, and that he had paid a great price in casualties, and was still unable to break through the tight defensive network of the Imperial Air Force to approach the transports, so he was forced to withdraw his troops and retreat.

The Imperial Air Force is victorious. Under the strong protection of the Air Force fleet, the four large transport airships were able to land one after another without danger. This air battle was a good start for the Imperial Crusade Corps' river-crossing operation,

The Palatina Brigade and the Bazel Brigade, which were the first to cross the river, rushed out of the transport boats as fast as possible and entered the group of riverbank fortifications that the Far Easterners had abandoned when they had retreated more than three months earlier. Despite the muddy water in the trenches, the choking dust in the bunkers, and the thorns and weeds around the rusty barbed wire, these useless fortifications were used to form defensive positions on the spot and strike hard at the Far Eastern troops who rushed up from the opposite side in the face of artillery fire and air raids.

In the three months since the Eastern Crusade, the elite knights of the Yashan Empire have been holding back their grievances. Throughout the long winter, they had no skills but could not find a place to use them, either cowering in the fortress and doing nothing, or braving the cold snowstorm to go to the countryside to collect food and hunt down the guerrillas—this trivial and boring work did not give full play to their strengths, but became a living target for the Far Eastern militia hiding in the dark corners, and countless companions fell to the guns of the sneak attackers without even having a chance to use their martial arts.

Now, the knights of the Palatina Brigade and the Bazel Brigade finally waited for the opportunity to face off with the regular troops of the Far East, and the powerful individual strength of the Imperial Knights was fully displayed in the positions on the east bank, and they were fearless in the face of the officers and soldiers of the Far East who were at least twice as many as their own, and under the command of Palatina and Bazel they were like two unshakable reefs, no matter how fierce the waves rushing up from the opposite side, they still held the defensive line and stood still, crushing the offensive launched by the Far East side again and again.

Throughout the following day, a similar drama was repeated on the east bank of the Turbid River: the Far Eastern Air Force

Cooperate with the ground forces to organize several assaults, trying to recapture the position on the east bank and prevent the follow-up troops of the empire from crossing the river, but in the end they were all in vain, and were strongly blocked by the imperial air force, artillery and two elite brigades stationed on the riverbank, and were forced to retreat.

By eight o'clock in the evening, the night was covering the field, and the positions of the Far East and the Empire, which had been fiercely contested for a whole day, were filled with gunsmoke, and thousands of corpses were displayed on the ground, most of them Far Eastern officers and soldiers who had taken the initiative to charge.

The fierce fighting that broke out on May 2, 1625, on the east bank of the Zhuolang River, was the first major setback suffered by the Far Eastern forces on the Western Front since the beginning of the war, and the total number of casualties in a single day's battle exceeded that of the previous three months combined.

Compared with the soaring casualty figures, the Far Eastern forces achieved little in this all-day battle: the ten miles to the east of the Turbid River were still covered by Imperial artillery fire, the Imperial Air Force still firmly held the air supremacy on the battlefield, and the positions on the east bank were still controlled by the two elite Imperial brigades that crossed the river first. Moreover, as time passed, more and more Imperial follow-up troops successfully crossed the river by transport boats, quickly stationed in the positions on the east bank, and assisted the Palatina Brigade and the Bazel Brigade to strengthen their defenses, and the offensive on the Far East side became even more futile.

The cruel reality forced Marshal Pavel to admit that it was impossible to recapture the positions on the east bank by launching a ground offensive alone, nor to prevent the main forces of the empire from crossing the Turbid River in large transport airships.

Marshal Pavel made a wise decision: abandon the attack on the eastern bank positions and retreat the main forces back to the Cold Creek town line. The 1st Far Eastern Artillery Division, stationed behind the town of Lengxi, moved forward and blocked the eastward advance of the Imperial Corps with artillery fire. At the same time, the Fourth and Fifth Fleets of the Far East Air Force also withdrew to Lengxi Town, strengthened air patrols, and cooperated with the ground anti-aircraft fire network to form a tight defensive line against air attacks that the Imperial Air Force might launch at any time.

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