Pallin Dongburg made his way to the high platform of the castle, from which he could see the direction of the inner city barracks, where the imperial flag with red stripes on a black background fluttered high, fierce and aggressive soldiers moving between the camps, and farther away, mage towers could be seen towering over the inner city, and the mage eyes on the towers were constantly monitoring the entire area.

He looked up again and looked far to the west—but today's gloomy sky and mist in the air blocked his view, and he couldn't see the Winterwolf Castle, which was now in Cecil hands, and certainly not the more distant Fortress of the Long Winds.

Is Andelsa safe in Cecil territory?

Count Wintercastle sighed softly, putting aside his senseless worries for a moment, and then used his magic to communicate with the several mage towers set up in the inner city, confirming that none of the mage's eyes had found anything out of the ordinary.

The main task of these mage's eyes is not to guard the direction outside the fortress - what they are really guarding is the Knights' quarters inside the fortress and the several additional barracks outside the city.

The barracks are filled with warlike knights and soldiers, as well as devout priests and battle priests, who are the main force of the war – and the biggest expendable. Since the start of the war, the number of troops in the Winter Fortress area has increased to more than six times the normal level, and new soldiers and clerics continue to rush to the front from the rear every day, making this narrow battlefield even more crowded and dangerous.

In Parin Dongburg's opinion, every day the magic train brought in from the rear was not an army, but a fresh corpse.

Unlike ordinary "corpses", these "corpses" gathered in Wintercastle are very easy to lose control, they are soaked in fanatical thought impulses, their nervous system and external perception have mutated into something human-like, they appear to be ordinary humans on the outside, but they are ...... on the inside It's become something distorted that even dark spells can't comprehend.

However, in this place at the forefront of the front, these dangerous and twisted polluters still have a way to control them - just restrain them strictly according to the rules of war, let them unleash the fanatical pressure of the god world in time, or administer large doses of psychosedative potions, to suppress their destructive impulses or slow down their mutations, at least temporarily.

It's a dangerous equilibrium, every day is like walking on a knife's edge, and Parin Dongburg's task here is to maintain that fragile balance and stay within the threshold of things getting out of hand...... Consume these fresh "carcasses" with the highest efficiency and the best possible way.

He felt like a technician controlling the burning kettle in the Burning Rock Acid Plant, every day accurately calculating the fuel and alchemical accelerants that were put into the fire, and the lives of human beings were coldly calculated in his hands, ready to be thrown into the flames of war the next time the furnace door was opened, and he maintained the heat of these flames in order to gradually decontaminate the Empire, detect and weaken the power of the Cecil, collect data on the battlefield, and adjust the balance of the scales......

He knew that everything he did had great significance, but he still found it all disgusting.

War wasn't supposed to be like this – and he shouldn't have done that.

"It's colder than I thought it would be," a voice came from the side, waking the somewhat distracted Earl of Wintercastle from his thoughts, "but it's hard to say which side of Aldenan or here is more unbearable—the cold here is like a blade, hard and sharp, and the cold of Aldenan is like a swamp, damp and suffocating. ”

The Earl of Winterhold turned his head and nodded to Count Cremont Dart, who was standing beside him—the Aldernan nobleman had arrived at Winterhold with the troop carrier today, nominally the commander of the support army, but in substance...... He was also one of the "consumables" that the magic train transported.

"This winter has been colder than usual," said the Earl of Wintercastle, "and it is difficult for soldiers from the central and southern regions to adapt here. However, compared to the northern borders of the Cecil, the environment here is already mild. ”

"Soldier ......," Clemmont Dart repeated softly, his gaze looking off into the distance as he swept over the barracks with the flag of the Empire, "Count Winterhold, these are very remarkable young men, truly outstanding...... Originally, they should have a bright future, and they should not have died in this cold winter. ”

Parin Dongbao was silent for two seconds, and then said slowly, "In the face of the malice of the gods, mortals are so vulnerable. Our Motherland needs to be reborn from the ashes, and what you see ...... It's the price of the flames. ”

"I see only pointless attrition, a long tug-of-war, but I don't see any effective counterattack—whether it's against the Cecil or against the gods," Clemmont said in a deep voice, "and tell me, is there really any point in burying mentally tainted soldiers and priests in this narrow battlefield like this?" Is this a blood cut, or is it a waste of vitality? ”

Earl Winterhold looked into Cremont's eyes for a long time before slowly nodding, "I choose to trust Your Majesty's judgment. ”

“…… That's a good reason," Count Clemmont smiled, took a deep breath of the cold air from the north, then turned around and slowly walked towards the exit of the high platform, "I'm already standing here anyway...... Leave me a good spot. ”

Parin Dongburg watched Cremont slowly leave, his eyes narrowed slightly, and in his mind's eye, he had already begun to calculate the value of this "conservative opposition aristocrat" here, and where the reinforcements he had brought should be consumed.

……

On the Winterwolf-Shadow Swamp defensive line, the wind swept through the rolling hills and low woods along the tundra, some loose snow was kicked up by the wind, swirling and lapping on the relay piles on both sides of the railway, while within the shimmering track shield, the heavily armored and imposing armored train Iron Throne, the Earthly Monty Python, was cruising along the railway line at cruising speed.

The repulsion generators on both sides of the train shimmered with the brilliance of runes, and the mechanism at the junction of the repulsion point and the carriage slightly adjusted the angle, slightly speeding up the train, and the snowflakes swept by the wind in the distance passed harmlessly through the shield and were swept under the whistling car, and on another parallel track some distance from the train, there was also an Iron Scepter lightly armored train that served as a guard and stood alongside the "Earthly Monty Python".

At the end of the Iron Scepter's Guards Gun Crew, in the engineering carriage responsible for maintaining the rails, a war technician who had just finished adjusting the valves and screws of some equipment looked up from his work, looked out at the snow-covered plains through the narrow window embedded in the side of the carriage, and muttered softly, "This damn snow has finally stopped...... I haven't seen a few sunny days since the middle of the foggy month. ”

"It's not necessarily a good thing to be sunny either...... The Typhonians might be more active than they used to be," another war technician shook his head, "they've been running to sabotage the railroad more than once, though most of the time to no avail...... But it is said that last time they almost succeeded in blowing up Line 7. ”

The war technician who had spoken before pursed his lips and did not continue the topic, he came to the side of the carriage, and looked more seriously at the snow-capped world outside—the military train covered in armor, with narrow windows and all windows covered with a layer of steel mesh, certainly did not have a good view of the sights, and all he could see was a vertical, narrow landscape, in which the listless groves and snow-white hills were rapidly receding, and in the farther sky, You can faintly see as if there are iron-gray shadows floating in the skylight.

That should be a sign of another snowfall – this damn winter.

"What's wrong?" The partner on the side casually asked, "What do you see?" ”

"There are clouds in the sky, and the scale is not small, I'm afraid it's going to snow again," the war technician muttered, "Judging by my experience, I'm afraid it's a blizzard." ”

"You're a machine repairer, and you have experience in judging celestial phenomena?" The companion pursed his lips in disdain, and turned his head to look at the window on the other side of the carriage—outside the narrow, thickened glass window, the imposing body of the Iron Throne, the earthly python, was crawling along the tracks not far away, rumbling forward.

……

In the tactical section of the earthly python, the front-line commander Maryland is standing in front of the command seat, looking intently at the many markings on the map, and on the desktop in his hand, communication devices, drawing tools, and organized information documents are in order.

After a moment, Maryland suddenly raised his head and looked at the adjutant on the side: "How long will it take to arrive at the combat site?" ”

The adjutant immediately replied: "Arrive at the firing area in thirty minutes - leave the firing zone in forty minutes." ”

Maryland nodded: "Well, the time is just right...... Inform the Arsenal Section to start pre-filling the Rainbow Generator with cooling water, and the power ridges at both ends will heat up in advance - we will soon be on alert for the Typhons, who have been reacting much faster lately than before. ”

"Yes, sir."

Maryland's attention returned to the map in front of him, and between the meandering and straight lines of the map, Typhon and Cecil's respective zones of control were intertwined.

Thirty minutes later, the Iron Throne Python will enter a specific firing area, and in about ten minutes of travel, the train will use its on-board iridescent cannon to unleash a powerful bombardment on one of the edge strongholds on Typhon's side - but this is a bit far away, and the iridescent beam should only burn some of the enemy's exterior walls and outbuildings to a limited extent, and maybe even casualties, but it doesn't matter.

The sudden rainbow strike was enough to make the entire line of Typhon highly nervous, and they would make a massive movement in response to a possible official attack, and they would send a large number of reconnaissance troops to try to determine the next route of the Iron Throne and whether there were more armored trains and convoys nearby, until they were all busy...... Iron Throne - Earthly Monty Python will return to the station in the Shadow Swamp, where Maryland will treat herself to a cup of coffee and, if she can, a hot bath if she can—all while pondering when the next armored train will depart and where the next real frontal strike will begin.

As for the collection and assessment of the military operations of the Typhonians in the process...... He will do it with the staff team.

This is what he has been doing a lot of time in recent times, and it is also one of the tactics he and General Philip have worked out together - its core idea is to give full play to the mobility of Cecil's mechic corps and the ability to deliver a large amount of firepower in a short period of time, relying on several railway lines in the Winterwolf-Shadow Swamp area and the temporary forward railway, with the three armored trains of Zero, the Earthly Monty Python and the recently installed War Citizen as the core of the operation, to carry out non-stop harassment-push-harassment-advance.

Relying on the powerful and long-range of the armored train's new rainbow main gun, which can inflict a huge blow on the enemy at a very long distance when the angle of fire is right, the armored train and its escort car crew are constantly touring the railway, randomly attacking the fixed strongholds of Typhon near the extreme range, and the enemy will have to move frequently, fatigue or evade attacks, and if they simply abandon those strongholds, keep a distance from the Iron Throne in the plains and fight on the move, Then the tank squadron on the Iron Throne will immediately enter the battlefield for mobile harvesting, or simply evacuate, draining the enemy's energy.

If the Typhonians retreated in the process, the engineering crews accompanying the armored train would immediately go into action - laying the "Forward Railway" to further expand the range of the Iron Throne, and setting up temporary stations and energy stations to supply tanks and infantry with magical energy - and if the Typhonians sat idly by, then Cecil's legions could build a large network of defenses and fortifications in the new occupation area within a week.

And if the Typhonians don't want to see this happen, then they will have to fight back against Cecil's occupation at great cost.

Initially, Maryland would have chosen to fight the Typhonians head-on, but after realizing that the massive Legion of Transcendents with constant morale and no fear of life and death could inflict great damage on the Mechn-legion if they fought their lives, he chose another option: if the Typhonians fought back, then he would fight them for a while, and once the battle was achieved, he would immediately retreat. Mechanized legions can move faster than regular infantry can do on the railway line, and the Iron Throne and its appendages will soon be able to retreat to the protected areas of artillery positions and permanent fortifications, and the only thing the enemy can do is destroy the unfinished fortifications and the improvised "forward railway".

Such losses were almost negligible for Cecil's engineering units.

This advance could have been endless—if it weren't for the Imperial Capital's orders, Maryland felt that he could have relied on this improved "steel push" tactic to bulldoze the entire Winterhold defense step by step, or even all the way to Aldenan before the end of the Fog Moon......

But the imperial capital gave the order after all...... At least at this stage, the Empire has no intention of attacking Aldenan.

Maryland exhaled softly.

That's fine, after all, it's all polluted...... The shadow of the out-of-control gods looms over the land of Typhon, and it is not a good idea to go too deep.