It was nearly dusk, and a human army of thousands of people drove over from the north, and the banner should be the Northern Army of the Yuss Empire. However, what is strange is that the front and rear parts of the team show a completely different state, the first half of the army is uniformly dressed and neatly formed, and the second half is scattered and demoralized, and there is not even a neat formation, infantry, cavalry and archers are mixed together, the armor is crooked, the description is embarrassed, and some even have two hands empty and do not even have weapons.

"Report! A small river was found in the valley ahead, where water could be fetched for cooking. ”

The scout ran up to a warhorse, gave a military salute, and reported.

Immediately sat a young general in his thirties, carrying a longbow behind him, and the wind and snow on the side of the plug left traces on his face, making him look at least five years older than he really was.

"Tell everyone to pick up the pace, we'll camp in the valley tonight. ”

The young general made a quick decision, and the herald trotted all the way to convey the order, and when he heard that he was finally able to rest and have something to eat, the second half of the team burst into cheers.

"When did the proud soldiers of the dignified Northern Legion become so unambitious and unambitious?"

When the young general saw this scene, he couldn't help but sigh secretly. However, the soldiers cannot be blamed for everything in front of him, the real root cause can be traced back to half a year ago.

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The young general's name was Jefferson, and he studied at the Royal Knight Academy in Juss when he was a teenager, and was in the same class as Robert of the Southeast Legion, Arman of the South-Central Legion, and others.

While training at the Knight Academy, Jefferson was determined to join the Northern Legion to serve the Empire. The year he graduated, just in time for the Imperial War Department to replenish a group of junior officers for the Northern Army, he took advantage of the situation to enlist in the army. In the first year of his enlistment, he served as an archer instructor in the Northern Legion, teaching the soldiers the skills of archery, this job was very boring, basically there was no chance to fight with the orcs, even if he had the opportunity to go to the battlefield, he would stand in the rear with the archers and shoot far away according to the orders of the starting officer, and he was often the starting officer, so a year later he applied for transfer and became General Bernard's personal soldier. Because Bernard likes to take the lead in battle, Jefferson finally has the opportunity to fight with the orcs at close range, his amazing archery skills, even in close combat, can exert great power, and with Bernard's words and deeds, his tactical ability and actual combat experience have been greatly improved, and he has also been appreciated by General Bernard. Three years later, General Bernard relegated him to the wing, but this time as the captain of the brigade.

In the year 327 of the continental calendar, General Bernard led a large army to conquer the Orc stronghold in the Alex Grassland, and the early stage of the war went very smoothly, but in the early stage of their preparation for a general attack on the Orc stronghold, suddenly the second Orc warrior Drakebar led an army to go around their rear, forcing Bernard to choose to withdraw, but the withdrawal process was not smooth. The orcs sent a brigade of wolf cavalry to harass them all the time, and when they got the opportunity, they would come up and bite hard, and at the critical moment, Jefferson was ordered to lead a team of cavalry to expel the wolf cavalry who were stalking and harassing to ensure the smooth retreat of the main force. Soon the cavalry and the wolf cavalry had an encounter, Jefferson shot ten arrows in a row and the arrows were not missing, and the wolf cavalry who rushed to the front were killed one after another, so that the wolf cavalry commander behind mistakenly thought that he had encountered an ambush by a large number of human archers, and hurriedly ordered a retreat, and Jefferson led the cavalry to pursue the victory, and successfully killed a return rifle, which not only relieved the wolf cavalry from the attack, but also beheaded more than 600 people, and won the opportunity for the smooth retreat of the main force.

Jefferson, who had made a name for himself in World War I, was promoted to lieutenant general shortly after his return, and there was a consensus within the Northern Army that he had been groomed as General Bernard's successor. However, the good times did not last long, and as soon as this year's New Year passed, Bernard was secretly transferred back to the imperial capital by the military department to discuss matters, and disappeared without a trace. Later, through some channels, the soldiers of the Northern Legion more or less learned about the inside story of the palace coup, and couldn't help but worry about Bernard, but in their hearts they didn't believe that the imperial court would really poison Bernard, after all, the defense of the orcs could not be separated from the Northern Army, and the Northern Army would not leave Bernard.

The new emperor wouldn't be so mediocre as to poison the heroes who defended the frontier, right?

The soldiers naively thought, but soon Yus XII made them despair, and the former Capra guard Moros rushed to Valen Pass with a letter of appointment from the military headquarters to take over as the commander of the Northern Army. At the same time, the Ministry of War also announced another matter, General Bernard was relieved of military power on suspicion of communicating with the party, pending investigation.

The soldiers of the Northern Legion would never believe that General Bernard, who had been defending the territory of the empire for twenty years, would betray the empire, but it was impossible for them to disobey military orders because of this, so they would really be charged with Bernard's rebellion. On the one hand, he could only accept the military order against his will, and on the other hand, he appealed to the imperial court:

All the soldiers of the Northern Army are willing to guarantee with their lives that General Bernard will always be loyal to the Empire and will never betray him.

The appeal was submitted, but before the reply from the military department returned, the new corps commander Moros had already begun to shuffle the officers, and as the appointed successor, Jefferson was the first to be affected, and he was transferred to the Xiguan Pass as a wing commander.

The Wallen defense line consists of four checkpoints, the Wallen Pass is the most important, almost 80% of the garrison is in the Wallen Pass, except for the Wallen Pass, the other three are small checkpoints, of which the westernmost Xiguan Pass is the smallest of the three small checkpoints, and the garrison has only one wing of 3,000 people. At this time, everyone realized that it was impossible for Bernard to come back, and they soon got the news that Bernard had betrayed the imperial capital and his life and death were unknown.

When the soldiers of the Northern Army were worried about Bernard's life and death, the first warrior of the orcs, Nag Rush, led a large army to kill, and due to the large-scale replacement of the middle and high-level officers with combat experience in the original Northern Army left by Moros, the morale of the Northern Army was low and the combat capability plummeted. However, even so, the grassroots officers with rich combat experience are still there, and the high walls of Valen Pass are thick, Jefferson predicts that as long as he can't hold on, it will still be okay to hold out for ten days and a half months, and then the city of Nice, which has received the battle report, can send troops to reinforce it. Unbeknownst to Jefferson, the city of Nice had fallen into the hands of Allen, and Moros was worried that he would have to fight alone until he died because he learned that the city had fallen, so he abandoned the city three days later when the gates were breached.

When news of the fall of Valen Pass reached the West Pass, Jefferson had no time to resent Mores, and he needed to make a quick decision about what to do. The fall of Valen Pass has led to the discontinuation of the entire Valen defense line, and at this moment, if you continue to hold on to the West Pass Pass, you can only wait to be surrounded and annihilated by the orcs, and it is better to give up the checkpoint and retain the strength of the Northern Army. Jefferson immediately made a decision, led the wing to withdraw from the Xiguan Pass, all the way south, while retreating and collecting the defeated troops scattered from the Valen Pass, until now, more than 100 miles away from the direction of the Valen Pass, and the team has also expanded from the original one wing to two wings, with a number of nearly 8,000 people.

"Cook as soon as possible, finish your meal before dark, and don't have any more open flames after dark. ”

Upon arriving in the valley, Jefferson immediately gave the order, the reason why he was so cautious was because the orc army was chasing the defeated soldiers, and he had already encountered two groups along the way, but fortunately he had managed to avoid them wisely. Orcs have better eyesight at night than humans and are very good at sneak attacks at night, so Jefferson did not allow the team to light fires at night, lest the light of the campfire attract an attack from the orc army.

"General, it's cold tonight. ”

It was late autumn, and although there was no snowfall, the temperature at night had dropped below freezing, and his subordinates had to be warned.

"Let's hold on, it's better to be cold than dead. ”

Jefferson still stood by his decision.

After dinner, the campfires were extinguished one by one, and the valley was immediately dark again. Jefferson lived in a simple camp, although there was no bonfire, but he was the strength of a high-level swordsman, he had a fighting spirit to protect his body, and the general cold could not hurt him, but he was not sleepy, and he was always thinking about what to do with the remnants of the Northern Legion that he brought next.

When the new emperor ascended the throne and immediately eliminated dissidents and killed meritorious officials, did such a court still have the meaning of continuing to be loyal?

But if you don't owe allegiance to the imperial court, what can you do, rebellion is undoubtedly a dead end, or become a horse bandit like Pols back then, no, no... , absolutely impossible, the once mighty Northern Legion must not degenerate to such an extent.

Forget it, let's wait until we get supplies in Nice City, after all, the current supply is only enough for everyone for two days, if you can't reach Nice City in two days, you will starve, and if you can't arrive in four days, you will starve to death.

Jefferson was thinking about it in the tent until the second half of the night, when he was about to fall asleep, when he suddenly heard a noise outside the tent.