The first phase of the Battle of Kursk was a field battle between the two sides, the second stage was a stalemate between the two sides, and the battle progressed to the third stage as Viscount Slim led part of the San Jose soldiers to attack.

Viscount Slim's chosen direction of attack was on the west side of the Desik army, targeting a series of posts between the Desik army in Red Leaf Town and the Desik army in Kursk. After forming the Northern and Eastern Clusters, the Deciks built a series of posts between the two places, most of which housed a squadron of Decic soldiers and some supplies, to provide shelter for patrolling Rangers and to intercept the movements of San Jose scouts.

The existence of these outposts has almost completely controlled the area along the Morro River in the San Jose Empire, and Viscount Slim's goal this time is to uproot these outposts. He took a thousand cavalry of the Guards with him and quietly left the San José barracks in the dark of night, which gave them cover for their movements, so that the Desik observation post in the distance did not notice their movements.

The Deadwood Outpost is a Desic outpost, about thirty miles from the Morro River, and is built on a small mound. This small mound in the Kursk Plain is only about fifty or sixty grams high, but in the Great Plains, this is high enough for him to stand out from the crowd.

The Desiks set up a camp at the foot of the mound, named Deadwood Outpost, guarded by a squadron of light infantry, and an observation post on top of the mound. This camp is the farthest from the Desik camp in the Kursk region, so it is an outpost.

In the dark of night, there were no fingers visible, and the nearby farmsteads and orchards were long since the presence of any San Jose people. The Ranger patrol at Camp Desik, who had just left a few hours ago, would not be returning for at least three days.

The Desik soldiers at the outpost were a little bored, and the lead squadron leader was our old acquaintance, Battalion Captain Kane, oh no, he was no longer a battalion captain but a squadron leader.

After the Battle of the Canyon, Captain Kane, who had survived, returned to Desik in discouragement. His regiment, including the commander who had been very good to him, and his officer friends, died in front of the wall in front of the Dunkirk Bridge. The overwhelming blood greatly stimulated old Kane's psychology.

Including the merchant alliance officer who also escaped death with him, made old Kane disgusted with war for the first time. However, his willingness to stay away from war does not mean that the Desik royal family will let him go. Shortly after returning home, De Sick's national expansion coincided with the expansion of the army, and a man of the right age and former soldier like Kane had to be forced to serve again.

However, being a soldier is a soldier, and the old Kane, who does not have a noble title, naturally does not have his previous rank of battalion captain, but looking at his previous experience, the old Kane was assigned to the newly formed light infantry regiment as a deputy squadron leader. The god of luck soon favored Kane Sr. once again, and during the battle, the squadron leader was unfortunately smashed in the head by a stone bullet, and Kane Sr. took over as captain in the battlefield.

Later, the infantry regiment, which had suffered heavy losses, was dismantled and assigned to guard the various posts, and the elder Kane took his squadron to the Deadwood Posts.

From the first time he was a soldier guarding the bridge by the canyon, the old Kane's military career has always been full of accidents, of course, he has been unscathed, and he doesn't know if these accidents are good or bad, and tonight is no exception.

The Deadwood Outpost was a small sentry with a squadron of five hundred men, one of which stood guard at the observation post on the mound, a wooden watchtower with a spiraling staircase to the top of the tower, on which a bonfire burned to illuminate the mound.

The outpost at the foot of the mound was also walled with wood, with an opening in the north and south directions as a gate. Soldiers could stand behind the fence and shoot. Inside the walls, however, there were several large tents in the tradition of the Desik army, each of which could accommodate between a hundred and fifty men. Another, smaller, more elaborate one was Squadron Leader Kane's camp. To provide illumination, a fire is burned in the middle of the camp to illuminate the entire perimeter of the camp.

In the dark night, nothing can be heard in the silence of the surroundings. On the walls of the outpost, there was a guard Desik soldier every fifty grams, but in this dark night, the sleepy soldiers, barely aware of the surroundings, had left the patrol commander not long ago.

Suddenly, only a muffled sound of "poof" was heard, and a short crossbow arrow pierced the night sky and pierced the neck of one of the guards, who fell down without a sound, and the weapon fell to the ground with a "Peng" sound. However, the soldiers in the surrounding area were far away and all dozing, and no one noticed the movement here.

Then, with a few more "poofs", a row of hook claws flew up the wall, slowly dragging for a while, and then firmly hooked the root of the wall. The movement went unnoticed, and several dark figures slowly climbed up the fence along the hook claws, all dressed in light leather armor and armed with steel knives. One of them lay down and examined the corpse of the fallen Desik soldier, and then whispered, "Get down!"

In the darkness of the night, nearly fifty warriors of the San José Guards quietly climbed the wall, carrying large quantities of tinder and oil (Note 1). Immediately afterward, more San Jose Guards appeared on the other side of the outpost, wearing standard combat armor, and before the Deciks could react, they shouted and rushed to the Deadwood Sentry Gate, inflicting a lot of damage on the Decic soldiers on the wall with their bows and arrows.

Captain Kane, who had been sleeping in the tent, heard the shouts of chaos and rushed out of the tent, he didn't even have his pants on. But Squadron Leader Kane has always been lucky, and today is no exception. The San Josens did not attack the gate directly, but simply made a loud noise outside the walls. When all the Desik defenders were drawn to the south gate, the small group of San José soldiers who had been stealthily climbing the wall began to throw large quantities of oil bottles into the sentry post.

The fire oil bottle was fried when it hit the ground, and the fire oil was randomly spilled everywhere, causing a raging fire. The Desik soldiers, who were still fighting, were shocked when they found the camp on fire. These posts generally have two responsibilities: keeping watch and supplying the Rangers. The place where the oil bottles burn is their supply depot.

Kane had to shout to his soldiers to put out the fire first, and the San Jose soldiers on the wall were not noticed by anyone. After throwing the oil bottle in their hands, they followed the hook claws that climbed up, smoothly climbed out of the wall, and disappeared into the distant night. At the same time, the feint team under the personal command of Viscount Slim also turned around and withdrew, and also disappeared into the night.

When daylight came, and Squadron Kane finally ordered his soldiers to extinguish the fire and count the losses, they found that there were not many Desik soldiers who died in the battle, but a large number of stockpiles of supplies had been burned. Captain Kane, who was furious, soon began to feel terrified, the Deadwood Sentry was an important node between Momiji Town and Kursk, and the supplies were worth about 50,000 Desik gold coins.

Kane began to worry that the Command side would find him trouble, but after a few days of worrying about it, Kane found that the Command side did not react at all. Later, through acquaintances, he learned that during the past two weeks, the San Jose Guards had organized a large number of night raids, and those Guards cavalry came and went like the wind, picking out the night attack on Desik's outposts.

These guards were not many, and the fire oil bottles used by the San Josens were so powerful at night that the Desic army was terrified for a while. General Hans had to increase the number of guards from five hundred men in one squadron to one fifteen hundred men in three squadrons. At the same time, an order was issued to all officers to strengthen night duty. At the same time, many rangers and wolf riders also began to patrol at night, and even clashed with Viscount Slim's guards many times, with casualties on both sides.

I didn't expect that the people of San Jose, who have always been noble, would choose such a counterattack. The professor at the Royal Military Academy in San Jose explained to the students that "tactics are tactics, and tactics that can be won are good tactics, no matter how noble or low." If the Desic want to occupy our San Jose, they will have to endure such counterattacks and losses. ”

The cadets of the Royal Military Academy in San Jose took notes carefully. When the war entered the phase of rejection, the Royal Military Academy reopened, and the students who had been on vacation (Note 2) returned to the academy. However, the foreign students among them, especially the Desik cadets, all left the Academy. All the cadets had a hunch that maybe in the near future, they would go to war.

Viscount Slim, the commander of the Guards, took the arrows himself, led his Guards cavalry, and attacked a large number of Desik outposts through night raids in a month's time, and even attacked the Desik camp in Red Leaf Town several times, and achieved significant results.

In this way, he was praised by Count Mosick, the Minister of War of San Jose, and this victory proclaimed to the Decirs that the people of San Jose were not forever beaten. He personally asked the royal family and the Imperial Council of San Jose for credit, and perhaps soon after the war, Viscount Slim would become Count Slim and the general.

However, after the Desiks strengthened the guard, Viscount Slim found that the possibility of a successful sneak attack was decreasing, and his men began to be damaged.

The war in San Jose doesn't seem to be ending so soon.

Note 1: About 1,000 years ago, at the end of the Magic Empire, an adventurous magician discovered a special black liquid substance on the coast of San Jose in the south, which can be found ten to fifteen meters underground. This liquid oil can burn everything when ignited and is extremely difficult to extinguish.

Due to the difficulty of extraction, during the San Jose era, San Jose rarely produced a small amount of thermal oil and stored it in Kyoto Castle, and rarely used it in war.

Note 2: The Royal Military Academy of San Jose generally has a holiday every summer to allow aristocratic students from various countries to go home to rest and visit family.